Children of Earth: Seto's Story
by KaibaGirl007
Summary: Torchwood: Children of Earth re-told from Seto's point of view.
1. Day One

**This story is part of my 'Doctoring the Blue Eyes' saga. **

**Set around four months after 'Something Blue' and re-tells 'Torchwood:Children of Earth' from Seto's point of view.**

**I own no rights to either show 'cause I'm poor :P  
**

**Chapter One**

It was a glorious sunny day. One that Mokuba had chosen to spend with his niece Anathema as the two of them played on the swings in the park. The little green haired girl was seated on the swing and her uncle pushed her so high that it looked as though she might do a loop over the top of the bar. Both of them were smiling and laughing so hard that you could see all the way to the backs of their throats and their eyes were squinting in the sunlight that shone down from the bright blue sky above. It was so hot and bright that the huge grinning sun worn a pair of sunshades to emphasise this…

Anathema placed down her coloured pencils and smiled at the picture she had drawn her uncle for his birthday the next day. She picked it up to show off now that it was finished. "Mommy Kara, look what I've done!"

"That's very good Baby." Kisara praised, looking up from reading her book as she researched information to help prepare her for the birth of her first child in just a few months time. "Your uncle Mokie is sure to love it when he sees it."

"I'm going to do another one." The little girl declared excitedly and picked up her pencils again only to freeze with her chosen colour hovering above the paper.

Kisara noticed the strange spaced out behaviour in her adopted daughter. "Anathema?" She placed down her book and moved to be by her side.

It was the strangest thing she had ever seen as the five year old didn't blink or move the slightest for over a minute and then returned back to drawing her picture as though nothing had happened.

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Seto sat in his office sifting through paper work, computer files and every other scrap of information that he had managed to gather regarding Geocomtex and its CEO Henry Van Statten. Thanks to Torchwood Three's previous research he knew that the guy had a huge array of alien artefacts, many of which were advanced weaponry, and it was left to him to try and infiltrate his way in there to confiscate them.

As a plan of action he aimed to gain the other man's trust by collaborating with him and sharing the advanced technology which Kaiba Corp had at its disposal. Not something he'd wanted to do willingly as he greatly detested the man in question, but if it helped him bring one of his company's competitors down too, then the sacrifice would be worth it in the long run.

The cell phone in his pocket rang and swiftly he answered it. "Jack?"

"Seto!" The excited voice of captain Jack Harkness sounded down the phone. "You're a man I can rely on; unlike some of those idiots at UNIT. Can you believe that I phoned them to speak with Martha and she's only finally gone and gotten married and is currently on her honeymoon? Of course I'm not calling her an idiot, but I was left talking to a Sergeant and that was no fun I can tell you…"

"Is there a point to this call?" Seto breathed out heavily. The handset was squished between shoulder and ear to leave his hands free for typing on his keyboard as he smoothed out some of the statistics for tomorrow's meeting with Van Statten. "If it's just a social rant about how Martha and Mickey didn't send out wedding invitations then I'm hanging up right now."

"No it's not, it's work related." Jack assured. "At 8:40 this morning, - I guess that would have been afternoon time for you guys because of the time zone difference, - all of the children stopped."

"What do you mean stopped?" The CEO asked curiously.

"Gwen says she witnessed several kids just freezing on the spot with their actions. That's about all we've got at the moment though Ianto has managed to find numerous reports indicating that this thing is on a global scale. UNIT 'allegedly' ran some basic tests on a couple of children immediately after the incident but that turned up nothing other than it doesn't seem to have affected babies or those who've matured beyond puberty. How's Anathema? Was she been affected by it?"

"How would I know?" Seto growled. "I'm at work."

"Then phone Kisara and ask her." The captain sighed. Was he meant to think of everything? "Say you saw it on a news report or something."

"She wouldn't fall for that for an instant."

"Well then tell her the truth about Torchwood!" Jack snapped a little too impatiently.

"No way." Seto disagreed with his friend. "You know how I feel about keeping her safe out of harms way and uninvolved with all this." Was his choice of secrecy always going to start an argument between them? It was okay for his friend as he didn't have a family to think about.

"You're right, he's back." Ianto's voice could be faintly heard on the other side of the line.

"Hahaha, I said so." Jack laughed. "Gotta go Seto. Speak with you later. Just do want you have to." The line went dead.

Seto stopped his typing and dropped his cell phone onto the desk. His mind was now focused on Anathema. After hearing what the captain had said, he wanted to make sure for himself that she was alright.

Without another thought he raised a hand to activate the com link in his right ear. "Becky, can you man the fort for me for a couple of hours while I'm gone."

"Sure thing." His sister-in-law replying from where she was working on a new computer programme and updating their system located within the secret basement beneath the KC building.

After quickly shutting down the computer and pocketing his cell phone, he left his office and wasted no time in driving home to check on his adopted daughter.

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The door of the mansion opened and Seto entered to be met with the sound of an excited Anathema.

"Daddy, you're home!" She ran up to him and threw her tiny arms around his legs in a tight lock.

"It's good to see you too." He prised her from him and lifted her up in his arms. Quite often she'd already be ready for going to bed by the time he got home after a hard days work of running Kaiba Corp and Torchwood Five, though she and his wife were only ever aware of the former of the two, so it was just as pleasing for him to have the extra time with them which he otherwise wouldn't have had. "How've you been feeling today Kiddo?"

"Fine thank you." She replied to his question and then speedily changed subject to tell him, "I drew pictures for uncle Mokie!"

"Can I see?" Seto asked and placed Anathema back onto the ground to fetch the drawings that she had excitedly spoken of. She didn't seem to be any different to him; still the same happy little girl he'd always known.

"Hi Darling." Kisara greeted her husband with a kiss. "You're home early for once."

"Lazy day." He explained. "Just waiting to hear back about a potential business deal so it seemed rather pointless to remain there with nothing to do when I could be spending it with my family instead."

"Nice to know that you haven't forgotten about us." His wife teased and kissed him again.

"So, how have things been for you today Honey?" Seto asked as the pair of them moved through the mansion and entered into the main lounge. "I guess things must be getting harder for you now that you're getting bigger by the day." He fondly patted the rounding bump on here front. "Anathema's not been too much trouble for you I hope?"

"She's never any trouble, but there was this one moment earlier when she …"

"When she what?" He asked as Kisara trailed off with her words.

"This." She gestured to the little girl who had been excited just a minute ago and was now motionless as she clutched the drawings she had done. "She never blinked, moved or said a word; just remained frozen like this for a while."

"Probably just some silly game of hers." Seto suggested his cover story as he moved closer to get a better look at Anathema and searched for any indications as to what could have caused her and the other children Jack had mentioned to behave like this.. "She's at that age now were she likes to play jokes."

"I don't know Seto; it was pretty freaky to see her like that."

Seto's hand gently brushed the small girl's face which was glazed as though in a trance. _What could have done this to her?_ There was no sign of anything causing her to freeze like she had.

Suddenly Anathema opened her mouth and screamed which caused Seto to hastily step backwards. He felt Kisara grab hold of him in fright and refused to let go even once the screaming had ceased.

The silence didn't last long though as Anathema then began to chant in her trance.

"_We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We."_

Seto's eyes widened as he became stunned at what he was witnessing.

"_We are. We are. We are. We are."_

"Anathema, stop it!" Kisara spoke as firmly as she could muster in her shaken state, but still the chanting continued.

"_We are coming. We are coming. We are coming …"_

"That's enough, quit scaring your mom already." Seto tried to appear like he was attempting to stop the scenario when in fact he was completely clueless and just as scared as his wife.

"… _We are coming. We are coming. We are coming …"_

"Snap out of it Anathema!" He approached her again, crouched down placing an arm on either one of hers and shook her gently in the hope of breaking the possessed trance. "Come on Kiddo, you can do it."

"… _We are coming. We are coming. We are coming." _

As suddenly as it had started the chanting stopped and the little girl blinked before then excitedly showing her daddy the pictures she had drawn.

Relived that whatever had taken control of Anathema had ceased, Seto was about to pull her close to him but stopped as his cell phone rang. He quickly looked at the screen to see that Ianto was calling him.

"Darling, what is it?" Kisara asked her husband as he stood up.

"Just a work call; it'll only take a moment." He told her calmly and opened the lounge door to exit to a more private space. Once the door was closed behind him he answered the call. "Ianto?"

"The children; it's happened again. Only this time they talked."

"Yeah, I know. I was at home and the same thing happened to Anathema."

"Count yourself lucky you only witnessed a single case. Down here on the bay there're several kids with their parents and a bunch of school children out on a visit. Hearing them all sound as was one was pretty terrifying."

"You …" Seto paused to correct himself. It was still taking its time sinking in that he commanded part of the Torchwood institute now. "_We've_ got to figure out what's causing this."

"Agreed. Jack's currently on the phone to the Home Office, see what they know, and I was wondering if you'd provide me with your help."

"What can I do?"

"Well, we may have twenty-sixth century so-called 'supercomputers' here in the hub, but from what I've heard they're nowhere near as advanced as your company's technological breakthroughs. I don't suppose you could upgrade our systems from your end? Or failing that, assist me with gathering further information?"

"I'll do both." Seto assured. The software he'd left Rebecca modifying as he departed from his company's building was exactly what was needed. All it required was some fine tuning. "Just give me a while to get back to HQ."

"Thank you."

"You work for the Home Office and you've never heard of Torchwood?" The captain's voice was muffled in the background.

"From the sounds of it, I don't think Jack's having much luck." The Welshman replied dryly in response to what they'd just overheard. "Anyway, got to go. Bye."

The cell phone was placed away into his pocket once more and Seto breathed deeply as he prepared himself for the news he'd have to break. He turned the door handle and re-entered into the lounge with an apologetic smile on his face. "I'm sorry Honey, but I'm going to have to go back to the office for a little while longer."

"Why?" Kisara exclaimed anxiously. "Whatever it is can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"I'm afraid not. You know how important me securing this contract is."

"More important than Anathema?"

Seto frowned. "Please don't do this to me." He could tell that his wife was scared about being left alone with their daughter in case something strange were to happen again and was playing at his weakness to prevent him from leaving. "I _need_ to do this. You're just a little shaken up from Anathema's antics but if you'd feel better with company around try giving Naoko a call. Or perhaps Becky and Mokie, Yugi, Tea, Joey, the Taylors …"

"No it's okay." Kisara sighed and ran a hand back through her long silvery hair in exasperation. "Like you said, I'm just a little shaken up. I'll be fine in a moment or two." She raised a finger and pointed at her workaholic husband. "But you better be back as soon as possible. No creeping in at late hours or pulling an all-nighter, you hear me?"

"I do." Seto replied with a smile and kissed her farewell. He'd return once he'd finished his task of helping his Welsh friend. How long that would take he had no idea.

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"You're crazy!" Rebecca argued as she was being forced home and away from her job of working on the coding for the new and still incomplete software. "You can't do this on your own Seto!"

"So you keep telling me." He was busy hammering away at the keyboard in front of him as he worked on the upgrades that Ianto had asked for. The process would take a while to complete and he didn't want her working beyond the hours that had been set in place to use as a cover up and hide her involvement with Torchwood from his brother. "Go home; Mokuba and the twins need you."

"It's going to take you hours to …"

"I said, go home." Seto repeated calmly though he was coming to the end of his patience with the woman's stubbornness. He stopped what he was doing and glared at those magnified emerald eyes. "That's an order Becky."

She met the glare with one of her own, and not wanting to start another debate about how it may be better for all involved if Mokuba and Kisara were aware of the secret organisation they were part of, she reluctantly backed down. "Okay, I'll go. But if you're not finished by the time I arrive back in the morning, then I'm taking over until it's done."

"I guess that's as good as I'm going to get on this matter." Seto muttered as he returned to his typing. "See you bright and early tomorrow."

Just a few moments later he found himself alone in the huge gigantic basement area.

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"How much longer is Daddy going to be?" Anathema asked as Kisara tucked her up in bed with her soft toy bunny rabbit.

"I don't know." She frowned.

"He usually puts me to bed."

"I know Baby, but not tonight."

"Why?"

"He had to go back to work for a little while."

"That was hours ago."

"I know." Kisara tried to turn her frown into a smile and failed. "Now come on; that's enough chatter, it's time for you to get some sleep."

"Okay." Anathema sighed and snuggled into the bed covers with Mr Hoppy. "Goodnight Mommy Kara."

"Goodnight Baby." She kissed the little girl and then left the pink filled bedroom.

It had been a long tiring day and Kisara wanted nothing more than to put her feet up and huddle with her husband. Except he wasn't there and he should have been by now. If she had known she'd still be on her own four hours later then she would have put up more resistance to him returning there in the first place. What could he be possibly doing at Kaiba Corp at such an hour? She'd call and find out.

The line to Seto's cell phone ran for a while before it was answered. "Everything okay?" He asked with concern.

"Yes. I've had no more incidences like earlier with Anathema, I've just put her to bed and needed to speak with you."

"That's great that things have been okay but I'm afraid that I can't talk for long; I'm in the middle of a phone conference."

"A conference? At this time of night?" It was well passed the hours of a normal working day.

"It's a time zone difference thing. I'm sorry Honey, if I could avoid it I would, but I really need to secure this contract. I shouldn't be too much longer; another hour at the most and then I'll be home."

"I'll be waiting." Kisara wasn't going to argue further. "I love you."

"I love you too." Seto hung up his cell phone and began typing again. He was almost done with the programme and would soon be on his way home. It was wrong to lie to his wife about what he was doing but knew he had no choice. At least he would be on his way home shortly.

A couple of minutes later his cell phone rang again. This time it was Ianto. "I'm almost done. You'll have what you need in a moment." He assured the Welshman before he got chance to demand why the systems hadn't been updated fully yet.

"What?" Ianto seemed a little out of it. "Oh! Yeah. Don't worry. No rush."

"Is everything okay there?" Seto asked as he picked up on his friend not acting like his usual self.

"Yep, everything's fine. Jack's just informed me that he's going to see one of our potential recruits at the hospital, and I'm following up on a lead that Gwen managed to track down."

"A lead huh?" Seto asked thoughtfully as he typed. He'd thought about asking how the Welshwoman was since neither of them had spoken to each other since his wedding day but then decided against it.

"Police backlog files contained video footage of a guy we now know to be originally named Clement MacDonald." The Welshman began to explain. "He was filmed chanting the same phrases at the same time as the children. Seemed strange that only one adult was affected be this, when compared to the millions of children, so off she went to investigate."

There was a brief pause and then Ianto suddenly blurted out, "I lost the car!"

Startled by the unexpected confession, several wrong keys were accidentally struck. "Pardon?"

"The SUV; it's been stolen." Came the explanation. "I went to see my sister, - make sure the kids were okay and everything, - and some thieving little bastards on her housing estate got through the triplet deadlock and nicked it. And can you believe that they had the cheek to drive around, - a lap of honour my brother-in-law called it, - and moon us as they passed by? When Jack finds out about this he's not going to be too pleased. He loved that car."

"I'm sure he'll understand." Seto assured his friend as he was nearing the end of his painstakingly long task. All he had to do now was connect it to Torchwood Three. "As long as you don't mention the part about the exposed flesh that was on show I he's likely to forgive … you …" He trailed off as his hard work suddenly disappeared from the screen. "Ianto, you _did_ open up all of the firewalls for me right?"

"Yup, all ten of them."

"Then why am I still being denied access to your systems?"

"Hang on, I'll check." The clicking of a keyboard sounded down the line. "Ah, looks like Tosh created an undetectable, maximum security, backup programme. That'll be what's giving you grief. I'll allow you authorised access to continue the job."

"A job which is going to take me a while longer." Seto grumbled to himself as the unexpected security hurdle had just deleted all of the work he'd done on the software over the pass few hours, with no chance of him being able to recover any of it. "Tonight is going to be a long night."

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_# Nine months had finally passed. It had been long and hard and tiring, and now it was all over. The time spent in labour had been surprisingly pretty swift, though the pain had been more than she had ever anticipated. _

_Still, it was all worth while as her baby was handed to her. Swaddled in a light blue blanket, the baby dragon slept peacefully but Kisara knew instantly that something was wrong._

_This dragon wasn't her baby. How could it be? Her first three babies had been white yet this one was red. _

_Three blue eyes white dragons circled around the bed where she sat holding her newborn, each of them wanting a closer look at their sibling. A gentle roar came from the youngest white dragon as it coaxed the red one to wake up and open its eyes. The other two dragons had clearly lost interest now they had seen what all the fuss had been about and backed away out of sight._

_With a tiny purr, the baby stirred and slowly opened its eyes. Now there was no longer any sense of doubt in Kisara's mind as the eyes staring back up at her were as sparkling blue as her own. This was indeed her child._

_Suddenly the remaining white dragon cried out and took a swan dive to the floor before the newborn burned up in her arms and exploded into light. #_

"Mommy Kara, wake up!"

Kisara's eyes flung open and back into reality. She'd been warned that being pregnant may cause her to have weird dreams about many possible birth outcomes for her child but hadn't expected anything so messed up as what she'd just dreamed.

"Anathema?" Groggily she looked at the little girl who had woken her up from her sleep and stretched a little. "What time is it Baby?"

"Seven o'clock."

"Already?" Kisara seemed surprised. It couldn't be that time; Seto hadn't come home yet. Had he? She glance to the neatly made side of the bed beside her and frowned. He'd stayed at work all night again. A smiled was forced onto her face as she returned her attention to her daughter; she'd worry about her husband later. "Let's get you ready for school. What would like for breakfast?"

There was no reply as the little girl just looked into thin air.

"Anathema?"

"_We are coming. We are coming. We are coming…"_

Kisara let out a horrified gasp and scrambled as quickly as she could across to the other side of the bed and as far away from the possessed girl as she could get.

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Seto rubbed his eyes for the umpteenth time. He was tired and so glad that he'd finished the software data once more. Now all he had to do was connect it to Torchwood Three and he'd finally be able to get some rest.

"Ooo, Kisara is not going to be happy with you when you get home." Rebecca told him as she arrived to work, armed with an extremely large polystyrene cup containing the strongest coffee she could buy and handed it to him. She could tell he'd been there all night.

"Thanks." Seto took the drink offered to him and chose to ignore the taunt she'd made about his wife. He didn't need reminding and felt awful about the way things had turned out.

"Let me finish off here for you; like we agreed yesterday." She tried to pry her brother-in-law from the chair.

"No need." He grinned and hit the last few keys he'd need to complete the task he'd spent so much time on. "There, all done."

"You just had to prove me wrong and do it all by yourself didn't you?" Rebecca rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Don't I always." Seto smirked and then drank some more of the caffeine based drink and drained the cup dry. "Right, that should keep me awake for the drive home."

"Drive home? Now? When you've got a meeting with dear Henry in a couple of hours?"

Seto swore loudly. He'd forgotten about the meeting with Geocomtex. There was still some preparation work to do too but he'd most likely improvise on that when the time came.

"You look exhausted." Rebecca told him. "Go get some sleep in your office for a couple of hours. I'll wake you up when he arrives at the building."

Seto didn't argue, - he was too tired, - and was about to leave her to it when several dozen windows flashed up on his computer monitors, all of them telling him one of two things. Torchwood Three's system was either inaccessible or offline.

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"…_We are coming. We are coming. We are coming…"_

"Stop it!" Unable to do anything else about the situation, Kisara held her hands over her ears to try and block out the sound of Anathema's voice.

"…_We are coming. We are coming. We are coming…"_

It wasn't working as the girl's voice seemed to get louder with each chant. "Stop it!" She screamed in one last frustrated attempt and then helplessly broke down into tears as it still continued.

"…_We are coming. We are coming. We are coming… Back!"_

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**A/N: I hope that was okay for people who haven't seen 'Children of Earth' to follow.**

**:)  
**

**KG**


	2. Day Two

**Thanks to darkdranzer for leaving a review :)**

**Chapter Two**

The messages continued to flash on screen; - _Torchwood Three system data is currently inaccessible._

"Do you think they received the programme okay?" Rebecca asked as she watched her brother-in-law frantically hammering away to see what had become of the software which had been deleted for the second time in a row.

"I hope so." Seto grumbled. He sure as hell wasn't going to spend the next several hours redoing it a third time. His cell phone rang and he winced before taking the call. "Morning Honey. Listen, before you tear into me about not coming home last night …"

"It happened again." Kisara cut through his words. Her voice was trying to stay calm but didn't quite hold. "A few minutes ago Anathema was standing beside our bed as she woke me up and then she started talking in the trance just like before, only this time she said 'We are coming back.' Who's coming back Seto?"

"I have no idea." He admitted and began to wonder the same thing.

"And it's not just her." She continued. "I switched on the TV and there're news reports about children all over the world doing the exact same thing."

"At least now we know Anathema isn't playing one of her games." Seto tried to lighten the situation and hide the fact which he had known.

"I need you here Seto."

"Honey, I can't." He hated to say such a thing after hearing the almost pleading tone in her voice, and though he would rather have been at home with her just knew that he couldn't. "I have an extremely important meeting in a couple of hours. To come home and back just wouldn't be feasible."

"Sometimes I think our marriage isn't feasible!"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between the husband and wife, both of them stunned by the bitterness in the words that had left Kisara's mouth.

"I'm sorry Darling." She breathed a deep mournful sigh. "That was the hormones talking not me. I'll be glad once this pregnancy's over; I don't mean to sound so whiney."

"Don't apologise." Seto felt even worse as she was now blaming herself over the situation. "You're dealing with a lot right now. But I promise that once this meeting is over I'll be right there by your side and then nothing will be able to shift me. Just a few more hours, okay?"

"Okay."

"Mommy Kara, may I have some more cereal please?" Anathema shouted from what sounded like a separate room from which the call was being made.

"I've got to go. I'll see you later."

Seto all too easily envisioned his wife on the brink of tears, but bravely holding them back, as she spoke before ending the call herself.

"Everything okay?" Rebecca asked as she watched him staring blankly at the mute phone in his hand.

"Yep, everything's just peachy." He muttered scornfully. She'd just witnessed him having the conversation so why ask such a dumb question?

An irritated glance quickly sent the blonde's attention away from him and to the keyboard in front of her but still she talked. "Can't imagine what she's going through. Poor girl's got her emotions flying around from one extreme to the other, normal everyday physical tasks becoming increasingly harder to carry out the bigger she gets, and left all on her own with a possessed child."

"You don't have to rub it in. I feel bad enough already."

"I'm not rubbing it in, more like thinking out loud and relieved that my boys aren't affected by this thing."

The error messages still flashing on the monitor screens were starting to annoy Seto. Just for the heck of something to do and feel slightly useful it prompted him to phone Ianto to find out if the programme he'd spent so much time and effort on had been received.

"Now's _really_ not a good time to chat." The Welshman panted hard before hanging up just as quickly as he had spoken.

Seto stared perplexed at his hand set and then decided to call the captain's number for his response instead. The line rang for a couple of times before a thought entered his head; if Ianto was preoccupied then what were the chances that Jack was 'preoccupied' with him also? _Maybe not a good idea to call him after all! _He cancelled his attempt just as it clicked through to his friend's voicemail; - _"This is Jack Harkness. Leave a message and I'll get back to you." Beep!_

"Ah-ha!" Rebecca exclaimed triumphantly as she typed away. "Looks like the programme was sent successfully and not intercepted by a third party, so my guess would be that the firewalls have been activated once more, which is why we're denied access right now."

"Let's hope you're right." The cell phone was pocketed.

"They'd have informed us by now if something had gone wrong with it on their end." She cleared all of the flashing messages from off the screen. "Right, now that their system is updated I just have to apply the programme to ours too. That is if you haven't done it already?"

Seto gave a small nervous laugh. "Actually Becky, there's something I need to tell you." Just what was the best way to explain that the master copy for the software data which she'd been working on the previous day had been completely deleted not once, but twice?

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Seto's eyes were heavy. He was tired yet profoundly refused to close them and rest as he sat in his office and worked on finalising the presentation for his meeting with Geocomtex. Anything just to keep him busy and avoid lolling in thoughts which would increase the guilt he already felt for not being with Kisara and Anathema right now.

For only the third time in nearly two hours he eyed the clock on his desk and was relieved to see just how much time had passed. Any minute now the CEO of Geocomtex was due to arrive for their meeting and after that he was free to return home and spend time with his wife and daughter as well as pay his brother a birthday visit.

The phone on his desk rang. "Kaiba." He answered.

"Sir, we've just received a call from Mister Van Statten who wishes to inform you that he will most definitely be late for the scheduled meeting." Seto's secretary gave him the news which she knew he'd be furious over. "Apparently he was appalled over the cleanliness of the limousine you sent to meet him from the airport and is currently having it washed, polished and the interior cleaned to meet his extreme high standards."

The CEO bit on his tongue to hold back the overwhelming frustration that burned within him. He'd inspected the limousine in question himself and there hadn't been a single fault with it; pure perfection as though it had been kept in airtight storage since rolling off the assembly line.

"If you ask me sir, the guy's a complete utter egotistical douche."

"When I want your opinion Diana, I'll ask for it!" He snapped and then reminded himself that it wasn't his employee's fault for the other man's absurdity. "But I have to admit that I entirely agree with you on that one."

"Thank you, sir." It was fairly easy for Seto to imagine the smirk on the woman's face. "I'll inform you when he gets here."

The phone was placed back on his desk and now Seto was left with more time to fill. If he had known that Van Statten would pull something like this then he could have quite easily spent some time with Kisara and Anathema before their meeting.

Rubbing his eyes again Seto decided that he needed more caffeine. He got up from his desk and walked over to his concealed kitchenette in the far cover of his office only to find that he was all out of coffee. With no fresh beans to grind it meant that he'd be forced to use the vending machines like the rest of his employees.

And since he'd be walking through the building to get the drink he desired he thought that his hard at work sister-in-law may also want some. Seto raised a hand to his right ear to find out. "Take five Becky. You want me to bring you coffee?"

"Are you making it" She queried.

"I'm all out of beans; it'll have to be a vending machine job I'm afraid."

"Well in that case I'd love some!"

"Have you heard back from Ianto yet?" Seto asked her as he began to feed coins to the machine.

"Nope, nothing from him, Jack or Gwen."

"We should have heard something from them by now." The machine began to dispense the two chosen drinks whilst Seto mused out loud. "A status update of the children situation at least."

"Want me to call them and look into it?"

"No, it's okay." He assured and balanced both drinks in one hand as he made his way to the elevator and pressed the button to call it to his floor. "I'll make the calls; it'll keep me occupied for the journey down."

"Okay, if you insist."

The line for the com-link between them went dead. Still balancing the drinks, Seto pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialled Ianto's number. He got no reply other than a voice informing him that the hand set was turned off.

_Ping!_ The elevator doors parted and Seto stepped into the empty carriage. Carefully the drinks were placed onto a small ledge above the control panels and the doors closed to hide its single passenger from view.

The CEO entered an eight digit authorisation code and placed his hand on a small panel which scanned the contours of his fingerprints to allow him access all the way down to the room below basement level.

With the elevator now in motion he dialled Jack's number and this time the line was answered after several rings.

"Hello?" Seto asked as the other end of the line remained quiet. "Jack?"

"I'm sorry but Jack can't come to the phone right now…"

"Who is this?" Seto demanded after hearing the stern female voice. "Where's Jack?"

"Jack's having a little lie down right now. Anything I can help you with Seto?"

He was going to ask how she knew his name but then stopped as he realised that it probably flashed on the phone's screen before the call had been taken. "No. I'll call back at a more _convenient_ time."

"You do that." The woman stated before she was met with the sound of a dead line. She had dark hair, a stony face and was completely dressed in black as she stood amongst the top layer of rubble lining the crater in the centre of Roald Dahl Plass where the Torchwood hub had once been.

Her eagle eyes watched as two undercover agents carried away what little remains they could find of captain Jack Harkness. It was such a waste of the huge black body bag containing the neat little pile of bits that had once been a man, but that was to have been expected since she had placed the bomb inside her target's stomach. A tiny smirk escaped her at the miraculous survival of the cell phone she held after recovering it upon hearing the ringtone caused by the caller she had not long spoken with.

"Did you manage to get a trace?" She spoke to the earpiece in her left ear.

"Not quite, I'm afraid." The operative admitted that he hadn't managed to fulfil the spontaneous task he been set just a few moments ago. "But what information I do have should more than make up for it."

"Let's hear it!" The woman demanded impatiently.

"The caller has been identified as Seto Kaiba; CEO of Kaiba Corporation. Whilst we were unable to pinpoint and confirm his exact location thousands of miles away we can confirm that the call was made from his hometown of Domino. And since this guy is a known workaholic and has a huge building with his company's logo on it, towering over the rest of the city, it shouldn't be too hard tracking him down."

"Do we have any international agents within his vicinity?"

"Yes agent Johnson, as luck would have it, we do."

"Excellent. Issue orders to retain him for questioning."

"Wait, there's more." The operative was feeling pretty pleased with what his search had thrown up. "Torchwood's records show that he once worked for them for a brief period of time _and_ that he is now in the process of setting up his own division of the institute. This obliviously shows that he's a key player to Harkness. Just like Jones and Cooper."

"I still what him questioned, but after that …" A smile almost succeeding in forcing its way onto her lips. "Shoot to kill."

"Yes ma'am."

Agent Johnson surveyed the destruction site once more. How the other two members of the Torchwood team had survived the carnage she would never know, but one thing she did know was that she would soon track them down and make sure that they didn't live a moment longer to reveal their tale.

So it would have infuriated her greatly if she had known that she was being watched by the Welshman she sought as he stood watching her from the safety of a nearby rooftop.

_8888888888888888888888888888_

Seto flipped his cell phone shut as he thought about the strange call he'd just made. Who was the woman he'd spoken to and why was she answering his friend's phone? Had the captain gone against the commitment he'd vowed to make to the Welshman several months back and was playing around again? Or was it possible that he was in some kind of trouble?

His cell phone rang, pulling him from his thoughts, and swiftly he answered the call. "Yan? What's going …?"

"Just listen!" Ianto snapped across his friend's words and continued to talk at fast speed. "The Hub's gone, Jack's gone, everything'sbeen destroyed. The last call you made has been traced and alerted them to your presence, so unplug the T5 systems, grab your family and _'run'!_"

The line was now blank and a chill ran down Seto's spine at the way his friend had emphasised on the word 'run'. There had been fear and desperation in the warning, something he knew not to take lightly in the line of work he had entered.

"Becky!" He relied on the use of their comms as the elevator still hadn't quite made it all the way down to the secret base. "Shut down the whole system."

"Why?"

"Don't ask questions; do it."

"Okay, I'll save my progress first."

"No time, just shut it down."

"But …"

"Shut it down, _now!_"

As the elevator finally came to rest at its destination, Seto wasted no time in leaping out through the sliding doors and into the vast room, leaving the two coffees where they stood on the shelf above the control panel. He noisily raced down the metal staircase leading from the elevator and headed straight towards Rebecca who was still typing away on her keyboard, and demanded, "Why isn't it shut down yet?"

"It's doing it right now!" She shot back at him as he made a direct dash to his desk. "Even though I commanded it to shut down without saving my work it's currently performing an auto save; that's what's causing the delay."

Seto didn't respond as he was too busy contemplating just how long it would take to construct a dumb down vortex manipulator for each of the people he cared for. _Too long_, he decided as he didn't have all the parts he'd require at hand to make them. - _As soon as this whole fiasco is over with I'm wasting no more time with creating a whole batch of them. _- Not to mention the fact that there was a slight possibility that Kisara's mind could be triggered to remember the Dalek invasion and the shared timelord mind, which the Doctor had warned that it may have the potential to kill her if such a thing occurred. He reached out for a pad of paper and pen, and began scribbling down his alternative plan of action.

"Are you going to inform me of what's going on?" The blonde asked as he came storming up to her.

"Torchwood three has been taken down and we're in danger of being next." Seto told her as he stared at the computer still refusing to speed up the shutdown process. "Here." He thrust the piece of paper he held at her and then with one swipe he torn free the cables leading into his system's base unit, instantly ceasing the power supply and activeness displayed on the screens.

"Have you flipped your lid!" Rebecca exclaimed with frustration at the way he'd just treated the high tech piece of equipment.

"Not yet, but the day's still early." He tried to stay humorous about the situation they were in but was completely serious when he next spoke. "I want you to round up Kisara, Mokuba and the kids, and then go to this location. Once there you give them the code name, authorisation number and my signature as proof and they'll fly you all …"

"Hang on a minute!" She interrupted him after scanning the paper she held in her hands. "Why aren't you coming with us?"

"I've got to stay and secure that contract with Geocomtex. Once that's done then I'll be right behind you."

Rebecca shook her head in silent disbelief. "Your life is in danger and you're still going to go ahead and do business with a man you despise?"

"After everything we've been through to get to this stage, I can't throw away an opportunity like this!" Seto snapped. "If we back away now then we'll never be able to gain his trust and confiscate the collection of foreign artefacts he's harbouring."

She knew that there would be no point in trying to argue with him on the matter as he'd most likely revert back to the long winded speech he'd given on their first day as a team. In short, Torchwood was dangerous and if she wasn't prepared to follow his orders then she should leave to pursue a more suitable job, like the one at the museum which had been fabricated to cover her tracks from everyone unaware of what it was that she actually did do. Their work would always benefit the lives of more people than those they cared about, and so sacrifices would have to be made along the way.

Gripping the paper into a tight frustrated fist, Rebecca then left to carry out the instructions she'd been given and Seto found himself alone to prepare himself for Van Statten's arrival.

_8888888888888888888888888888_

"Are we there yet?" Mokuba asked excitedly as he sat in the back of the people carrier and wore a blindfold over his eyes. Next to him sat Anathema and both of his young sons in their car seats in front of them.

"Not yet." Rebecca gave a faint laugh as she viewed her husband through the rear view mirror whilst she drove. No matter how old they got, he always remained the same joyful twelve year old she had first met all those years ago.

"I can't believe that you and Seto went to all this trouble." Kisara commented as she sat beside the driver. Why hadn't neither of them included her in arranging the surprise trip? If she had known then she could have at least been more prepared instead of whisked away in such chaos.

"I can." Mokuba grinned in the direction of the voice of his sister-in-law. "They always find some way to surprise me on my birthday. I wonder where we're going to this time?"

"It's a surprise." Rebecca assured when in fact she didn't have a clue either. Out of the front window she could now see the perimeter fence of the secluded airbase that Seto had instructed her to go to.

The car was carefully driven along the dusty and rugged path until they came to a huge gate and security booth with a barrier blocking entrance into the place.

"Can I see your clearance please ma'am?" The red beret wearing guard situated behind the bullet proof screen asked.

"Of course." Rebecca smiled and handed over the paper her brother-in-law had given her along with an accompanying note explaining to the reader that her passengers had no knowledge of her involvement with Torchwood and politely requested that it stay that way.

Slowly the barrier rose. "Go right ahead; your flight will be leaving once you are onboard."

"Thank you." Rebecca drove the car forward into the UNIT base as she wondered how Seto was doing right now and just how long it would be before he joined them at their flight bound destination.

_8888888888888888888888888888_

Finally the meeting was over. Somehow Seto had managed not to fall asleep during the droning of his guests, a mountain of paper work had been signed and the haughty CEO of Geocomtex was now leaving the Kaiba Corp building.

"Congratulations sir." Diana the secretary beamed at her boss as he gave out a hugely relieved breath that the whole thing was over with. "I take it that's a weight off your shoulders?"

"You have _no_ idea." He shot back and handed over his copy of the newly formed contract for her to file away.

It was only then that he realised just how loyal the woman had been to him over the years she'd been part of his company and knew that she was someone he could trust, so much so that he wouldn't have a problem with her gaining knowledge about Torchwood. "I'm going away for a while, to … celebrate Mokuba's birthday."

"Going any place nice?" She asked casually.

"That's not important." He avoided further conversation on the matter regarding location. "While I'm away, I want you to place an advertisement for a secretarial position."

"I didn't realise that we had an opening for a new recruit."

"We don't." Seto smirked. "They're to replace you with."

"Me?" Diana exclaimed, horrified at the thought of losing her job. "Have I done something wrong sir?"

"No." He assured her after noticing the loss of the casual tone from her stunned voice. "You Miss Goddard are being promoted once I return."

She was speechless at the news as she grinned back at her boss.

"Is my limo ready?" Seto asked with a smile.

"Yes sir." She re-found her voice and nodded. "It's waiting right outside for you."

The CEO bid his employee farewell and then made his way towards the limousine that would take him home. He was too tired to drive himself right now but knew he'd have to make the journey from his mansion to the airbase once he'd changed and gathered a few things.

"Where to sir?" The chauffeur asked as Seto clambered into the back seat.

"Home." He ordered calmly as he rest his head on the back of the seat; eyes closed and fighting temptation to sleep.

"Yes sir." Slowly the limo pulled away from the KC building.

The darkness created by the backs of Seto's eyelids was inviting and although he could quite easily rest for the duration of his journey within the safety of his company's car, he still fought against the seduction, helped by the fact that his mind was too full of anxiety with all the things that had been happening fast in such a short space of time.

_Click! _ The noise of the automated door locking caused him to re-open his eyes. His chauffeur never locked the doors of the limo. Something wasn't quite right. He sat up properly and caught a glance of the driver through the rear view mirror.

"Something wrong sir?" The chauffeur asked as he noticed the CEO staring at him.

"You're not my usual driver. Where's Alonso?"

"He called in sick sir; I'm his replacement."

Although he knew what he had been told was a lie, - for starters, he had no driver named Alonso, - Seto accepted the explanation as he casually unfolded a newspaper from the pocket of the door and held it in front of him though he had no intention of reading it. Whoever the man was in control of the limo he was fairly certain that he'd been sent after him just like Ianto had warned earlier.

As the limo gathered speed and entered onto a freeway which led in the wrong direction for their travels, Seto produced a pen from his suit jacket pocket. The pen was in fact something he'd been working on in an attempt to try and recreate the device that he'd seen the Doctor carry around with him.

So far the only success he'd had with it was the ability to cancel out surveillance cameras and unlock automated locking mechanisms, and it was very temperamental about its usage. It wasn't perfect, but it could provide useful in given circumstances so he had duplicated another which he'd then traded with Jack for a piece of the captain's futuristic Nanogenes technology.

Right now Seto hoped that the device would give him a break and work to help him escape from the situation he'd found himself in. As the limo passed by the last turning for the next five miles, he pressed the button, heard the door lock successfully click open and flung himself out onto the freeway.

The CEO felt his left knee rage with pain from the roll landing with such force on the tarmac. Not the best idea he'd had but at least he was out of the limo that had been set on taking him who knows where with the certainty of a disastrous outcome for him.

Horns blared and cars swerved to miss the man who, despite the ache in his left leg, got up and ran as fast as he possibly could back towards the city.

Unless the driver of his limo wanted to drew attention to himself by trying to perform a 180 degrees turn in the middle of a fast flowing three lane freeway, or stop to double back and chase him on foot, then Seto knew he had just a little under five miles before his pursuer would have the means to track him back into the built up area. He needed to get to his next destination fast and with now choosing to bypass his mansion altogether and knowing that Kaiba Corp would be strictly out of bounds if he was to go undetected, he'd have no choice but to ask for help.

_8888888888888888888888888888_

The plane landed with a soft bump on the small isolated island. At only a mile and a half long in any given direction, it was void of signs of civilisation except for the extravagantly built villa where they would be staying during their time there.

A few moments later the small group of passengers and pilots descended the plane. Rebecca helped her voluntarily blind husband down each step whilst Kisara followed with Anathema, and the two pilots behind her with one of the twins each.

Once back on solid ground and clear from the runway with their cases, the twins now seated in a double stroller, and a huge trolley load of fresh food supplies and other essentials left by UNIT, the plane took off back into the sunset sky and disappeared over the horizon.

"So?" Mokuba was still acting like an excited kid as his wife removed the blindfold to allow him to see again. "Where are we?"

"Does it _really_ matter to you that much?" Rebecca quizzed him playfully, hoping his answer would be 'no' as she still had no idea herself as the pilots had refused to tell her, - for security reasons they had said, - when she'd found a moment to ask them out of earshot of the others.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter _too_ much." He shrugged and surveyed the beautiful island's scenery. "Nice place for a surprise birthday getaway."

"Yeah, really nice." Kisara commented, feeling a little envious that her husband had never whisked her away to such a wondrous place before.

"Mommy Kara, I _need_ the bathroom!" Anathema exclaimed urgently as she tugged on the silvery haired woman's hand..

"Okay Baby, let's make our way towards the house…" Kisara began to lead the way but the little girl had become frozen. "Oh no, not again!" She gasped fearing and knowing all too well what kind of behaviour was likely to come next.

"_We are coming tomorrow."_ The chanting began. _"We are coming tomorrow. We are coming tomorrow…"_

"Holy crap, it's affecting her too!" Mokuba jumped with surprise though he'd seen several children behave in a similar manner at his theme park the previous day. "I thought that it was just a group of kids playing around at first and _never_ expected … well, this."

"… _We are coming tomorrow. We are coming tomorrow. We are coming tomorrow…"_

"Am I the only one wondering who 'we' are?" Kisara asked as she saw Rebecca fascinated and leaning to get a closer look at Anathema.

"Aliens?" Mokuba ventured lazily as he took hold of his sons' stroller and subconsciously edged them away from his niece. Whatever it was he didn't want his children affected by it too.

_8888888888888888888888888888_

The limousine had been abandoned and its agent driver had acquired a new set of wheels, - a small black coupe, - to help track down his target. After using some of his specially developed high tech, body portable, equipment, he'd managed to locate the CEO through the city's CCTV network. However some of the cameras had been down and provided blind spots were it may have been possible for the man to hide which was why he was currently parked up by the road curb outside of _'Taylor's Trade-in Tyres'_ and surveyed the area for signs of his target.

Across the road from the agent in his car, an old woman walked her small scrawny looking dog. Not his target.

A short way behind her a gang of youths joked around with each other. Not his target either.

On the same side as the motionless vehicle, a homeless guy draped in rags sewn together to form a coat with the hood pulled up over his face walked by as he pushed a shopping cart full of rubbish. It could be quite possible that the man he sought had tried to disguise himself so it was worth a closer investigation.

The agent let the homeless man pass by in front and then was about to get out and confront him when something more interesting caught his attention in the car's rear view mirror. There in the yard of the used car sales lot a couple had emerged from the show room with the salesman who led them to what he would have presumed to be their newest purchase.

The salesman was tall, smartly dressed with dark brown hair that peaked at the front of his head and a small area of stubble on the end of his chin. The other man was around the same height, wore casual clothes in the form of jeans and a video gaming t-shirt, with shades and had very short cropped brown hair. On his right arm hung a child's car seat containing a small sleeping infant, whilst on his left arm hung an over excited petite young woman, - a quick scan of their left hands told him this was a married couple, - dressed in a pink dress with fair auburn coloured hair who pulled down so hard that the guy seemed like he was having trouble standing at times.

Once they'd reached the crimson Honda, the child in its seat was placed in the back and the couple took their places in the front with the man seating himself in the driver's seat. After buckling up their seatbelts and bidding farewell to the salesman, the shiny red car drove off.

The agent took his eyes off the scene for a moment whilst he fiddled around with the navigation device in his car and then heard a soft tapping on the roof.

"Hey buddy, can I help you with something?" It was the car salesman, an arm resting on the roof as he beaming cheerily right at him through the open window. "You've been parked there for an awfully long time. Interested in trading in your wheels for …"

"No I'm not!" The agent snapped angrily.

The salesman jumped back. "Okay. Geez keep your hair on!"

The engine of the small black car roared to life and the agent double backed on the road which he had driven on previous to his stop.

Tristan Taylor stood watching the car leave. He'd been told not to approach the man like he had, but then again he always was a bit antagonistic. With a satisfied grin he took out his cell phone and called his wife. "Hi Babe. Tell Seto he's got nothing to worry about. That goon just drove right back the way he came and in the complete opposite direction of where you guys are heading."

What he didn't know was that it was only a block over that the driver of the black coupe turned right around and took a different route to follow on after the red Honda whose licence plate he had programmed into his in-car device just a few moments earlier and was now tracking their every move via the CCTV network.

_8888888888888888888888888888_

Far out from the city and on a small side road in the middle of nowhere, the red Honda pulled to one side. Its driver rubbed his tired eyes and reminded himself that he still had a way to travel on foot before reaching the isolated airport base. He stalled the engine and prepared to leave the vehicle.

"Seto?" Serenity dared to grab his arm and prevent him from exiting the car as she broke the silence that they had been travelling in since she'd relayed her husband's message. "Are you just going to leave without any explanation at all?"

He looked back at the brown eyed stare wanting answers from him. Answers which he couldn't give without putting her more in danger than she'd been placed in already from the help she'd provided; bringing him some cloths, clipping his hair short and acting as part of a family in order to change his appearance to fool and escape from his pursuer.

"That's exactly what I'm doing." He knocked the small delicate hand from his arm. "Thank you for your help." The car door opened and Seto got out, hobbling as his injured leg struggled to take his weight.

"Are you going to be okay?" Serenity asked as she slid herself from passenger to driver's seat.

"I'll be fine; you and the little one just get out of here" He assured as he pulled off the fake licence plates from the bumpers which had been used so that the man chasing after him would no longer be able to track down the car once it returned back into the city, therefore reducing the risk of danger to the friends who had kindly helped him.

"Take care." She called and then drove away to leave the CEO standing alone by the cover of some trees.

Seto gave the dusky area one last surveillance and then began his hike along the line of trees which would eventually lead him to the UNIT air base. He only hoped that the overdue reward owed to him from the company he'd conveyed the information of his stepfather's super weapons to, had still upheld their end of the bargain in providing a safe sanctuary for him and his family in his time of need. The offer made by them was for 'one time only' and something he'd never thought he'd have to rely on,_ ever_, since the fall of Gozaburo. _They better not let me down after the crap I've had to put up with from them._

It had been almost an hour now since he had parted from Serenity, - whom he had not wanted to know too much about the situation which was why he hadn't driven all the way up to the front gate himself, - and finally the perimeter fence of his destination was in sight. Not long to go now and he'd soon be reunited with his family.

He tried to pick up the pace but his left leg just wouldn't allow it. Ideally it could do with being looked over to determine what kind of damaged he had sustained but hospitals were not a place he liked to be around, not to mention the fact that it would be a major inconvenience to his plan of action right now.

There was a rustle in the shrubbery behind Seto and before he knew what was happening, a cord was pulled tightly across his neck by the agent who'd been one step ahead and foreseen his moves. Instincts had made him instantly raise his hands to free, or at least loosen the pressure, on his throat but still he failed to do so. Next he tried to violently shake off the agent but his leg gave way and they tumbled to the ground together.

"What do you know?" The agent demanded as he kept his hold on the fallen man who was desperately squirming to break free.

"About what?" Seto gasped as angrily as possible.

"About the children."

It took a moment for him to draw enough breath. "Nothing."

"Don't lie to me; what has Harkness told you?"

"I. Know. Nothing!" Each word was spat as viciously as he could muster. "And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you!" The cord was pulled tighter still and Seto could practically feel the sides of his oesophagus touching from the pressure placed upon it.

Even if he were to continue questioning his target, the likelihood of getting anything more from the man was doubtful. Time to just move on to the last part of his mission.

He released his hold on the cord and drew his gun level with the CEO's head.

"_Freeze!_" The order was shouted simultaneously by three men in red berets with rifles at the ready to take down the lone assassin. "Put down your weapon!"

"You have no jurisdiction over me." The agent snarled as his finger tightened on the trigger.

_Bang!_ The smaller gun fired and although he'd moved as fast as he possibly could to avoid being hit, the bullet wedged itself deep in Seto's shoulder.

Before he had chance to shoot again the three UNIT officers activated their rifles and shot the agent dead were he stood.

Fighting against the pain now raging in his leg, throat and shoulder, Seto managed to roll away from where the bloodied body had fallen beside him but now found three rifles pointing his way.

"Identify yourself!"

"Seto Kaiba." He winced through clenched teeth as he fought against the pain he was enduring, and then with a mixed tone of scornfulness and pride he added, "_Torchwood._ Authorisation number, 89631139."

The rifles were lowered in response to the information he'd just given.

"We've been waiting for you Mister Kaiba." One of the officers smiled and extended a helping hand which was ignored by the man struggling to get on to his feet. "Please come with us. We'll get medical personal to check you over and treat your wounds..."

"I don't _need_ checking over _or_ treating." Seto hissed as he now stood clutching his shoulder and tentatively placed weight on his injured leg. "What I need is to be flown to my family."

"As you wish." The UNIT officer retorted and then in the same scornful type manner he'd been spoken to in added, "Sir."

_8888888888888888888888888888_

The plane was due to land shortly as the CEO was busy finishing up with making himself look presentable in the dinner suit which UNIT had provided for him.

Using the small Nanogenes device he'd received from Jack, Seto had managed to clear up the grazes and bruises forming on his neck, agonizingly removed the bullet and sealed the wound to his shoulder, and eased the swelling and pain to his knee. _Ha!_ Seto laughed to himself._ Who needs hospital attention now?_

He almost drifted off into sleep once he'd got back into his seat as the plane was about to land.

"We're here sir." The pilot informed him.

Tiredly Seto got up and disembarked the plane.

Now that he too was on the island, the plane took off once more, and Seto entered the villa in search of his family. "Kisara? Mokie? Becky?" He shouted.

"Daddy!" Anathema's squealing voice rang out through the place as she came speeding inside from having been in the outdoor pool. The voice she knew all to well had been what drew her to him but she froze at the sight of the stranger standing before her.

"It's about time that you got here bro." Mokuba laughed as he joined the scene and suddenly found that his niece used him to hide behind. He caught glimpse of the man with extremely short hair who had startled her. "Seto? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me." He sighed, knowing that he'd have to think of some kind of explanation for sporting his new haircut. In an attempt to change the subject he laughed, "If I knew that you guys were going to be in swimwear then I wouldn't have bothered making an effort with the suit."

Kisara, Rebecca and the twins finished off the reunion. "What the …?" The two women exclaimed together at seeing the new look Seto.

"I … thought that I'd get my hair cut especially for the occasion." He tried to think of something plausible. "And let's just say that the person cutting it wasn't a fan of my years gone by. Thankfully it will grow back so there's no real harm done."

Rebecca wasn't buying it for an instant but know she'd be hard pressed to find a moment to get Seto on his own to explain what had truly happened.

Kisara raced forward and flung her arms around her husband whom she was glad to see and then teasingly punched his upper arm as she pulled away. "Don't you _dare _leave me hanging like that _ever_ again!"

"I'm sorry Honey; it was unavoidable work issues." He apologised for the extra time they'd been apart and for not being there when their daughter had been possessed.

"I know." Kisara smiled sadly and then hugged him again. She wanted to remind him that she and Anathema were just as important, - if not more so, - than his company, but wouldn't dream of confronting him in front of his brother and sister-in-law.

"Well since we're all here now, let's get this party started!" Mokuba shouted and returned to the pool outside.

_8888888888888888888888888888_

The last few hours had been a struggle for Seto to stay awake but had managed to do so purely due to Mokuba's hyper-activeness if nothing else. If it hadn't have been his brother's birthday, a reason for the younger Kaiba to want to celebrate, then he would have probably called it a night at around the same time that the children were put to bed. But no, he didn't want to disappoint his brother so had endured the festivity.

Now though, Seto finally lay in bed, more awake than before as the anxiety regarding his friends returned. His arms were wrapped around his snoozing wife whilst waiting for sleep to catch up with him again and just as he'd manage to relax enough to welcome back his sleepiness his cell phone began to ring in the darkness from where it had been placed on the bedside table.

"Mmm?" A groggy Kisara frowned at being disturb from her sleep. "Who could that be calling you at this time?"

Seto squinted at the number displayed on the screen. It wasn't one that he recognised. "Sorry Honey, but I'm going to have to take this." He kissed her head softly before wrapping a robe around himself and left the bedroom.

"Hello?" He answered wearily. "Kaiba speaking."

"Oh thank god!" A relieved Welsh female voice sounded down the line.

"Gwen?" He hadn't heard anything from her for months now that he failed to hide his amazement.

"Well yeah; who else were you expecting? The Easter Bunny?"

Seto ignored the jesting which he'd missed from his friend. "What's going on Gwen?"

"That's exactly what we'd like to know and are in the process of trying to find out."

"Great. Why aren't you calling me from your phone?"

"I can't otherwise it'll be traced." She explained and then a thought accrued to her. "Uh-oh, what if your number gets traced too?"

"That's not going to happen; UNIT's cloaking devices will block that sort of thing."

"You're with UNIT?"

"No, just on one of their islands, - long story, - What happened to Jack?"

Silence.

"He was blown up. From the inside; along with the hub. We didn't have any idea what had happened to him since then, but now we've managed to track down where his remains, - well some of them at least, - are being kept."

Seto was stunned to hear that his friend had died such a gruesome death. Would it be one that he'd be able to come back from or was the captain a goner for good now?

"We're planning on busting Jack out of there shortly. We're just waiting on …"

"Well don't go telling him the whole plan!" The distinctive sound of Rhys' voice muffled down the line. "It's not like he'll be able to do anything from where he is anyway!"

"What's he doing there?" Seto asked with an irritated tone.

"He's my husband for Christ sake; I'm not just going to abandon him!"

"And don't forget to mention that you're carrying our baby." Her husband proudly added as he eavesdropped on the conversation.

"You're pregnant?" The CEO asked bewilderingly.

"Yeah." She didn't sound like she wanted to talk about it further.

"Congratulations I suppose." What else was he meant to say? "Back on topic; you and Ianto plan to …"

"Ianto's not here."

"What? But you've been saying 'we' throughout the whole conversation?"

"Yeah, _me_ and _Rhys_. I haven't seen or heard from Ianto since not long after the hub exploded." The tone in her voice began to waver. "He could be dead for all I know."

"He's not dead." Seto assured her. "I had a brief call from him earlier. That's how I knew about Jack."

"Of course." She half laughed and sniffed back the emotional build up.

"Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude, but it is _my_ phone bill you're running up."

"Who's that?" Seto asked as he didn't recognise the female voice.

"That's Lois." Gwen told him.

"And Lois is?"

"Torchwood's new best friend. We wouldn't be on our way to get Jack back if she hadn't helped us. Anyhow, what I wanted to ask you Seto was now that we don't have access to any computers or hi-tech technology of the sort now, could you run a search for me? I need you to find out as much information on Colonel Michael Sanders, Ellen Hunt, and Captain Andrew Staines as you can find."

"Sure, I can do that, but not until the morning comes."

"Of course, there's the time zone difference, I do apologise. Did I get you out of bed?"

"Don't worry about it. Just give me a few hours, okay?"

"That's fine." Gwen agreed. "I should be able to inform you of our next plan of action then as well. Bye Seto, and again; _I'm_ sorry."

"I'm sorry too." Seto replied knowing that in fact her second apology had been relating to the last time that they'd seen each other face to face. He cancelled the blank line on his cell phone and made his return to bed.

"Who was that Darling?" Kisara asked as she watched him drop the robe from his arms and climb back underneath the covers.

"Work." He told her.

"Oh." She sighed disappointedly.

"Don't worry though; it's nothing that can't wait until morning." He assured and snuggled back into the position they'd been in before the ringing had disturbed them.

Although she was slightly saddened by the fact that her husband would no doubt insist on working while they were away, the fact that he'd returned to bed with her instead of setting to his task right at this very moment almost made up for it.

Seto's head was now filled with more worry concerning his friends thousands of miles over seas, but he was so tired right now that nothing could stop him from falling into a deep sleep. Not even the first noticeable kick from his unborn child as it booted against his side.

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**A/N: Hope the events make some kind of sense and that you non-CoE people are still following. And my bad for not posting in the crossover section last time, doh!  
**

**My original plot draft _did_ have Kisara in the know about Seto's involvement with Torchwood. I changed it though as I felt this way seemed more interesting, testing their marriage and Seto's priorities/beliefs/morals.**

**Notice the set up of Diana Goddard as Seto's undercover spy in the Doctor Who newer season one episode 'Dalek' and that ****Seto still can't make a decent coffee XD**

**This chapter contains the closest thing to Silentshipping as I am ever going to get. I _really_ detest that coupling. **

**Give yourself a pat on the back if you know what Seto's authorisation number (89631139) is.**

**:)**

**KG  
**


	3. Day Three

**Big thanks to Isis the Sphinx, drafius, and biskittins for leaving reviews :)**

**This chapter as some actual dialogue from CoE:Day 3 which I can't take credit for.**

**Chapter Three**

Having been awake for only a mere number of minutes, which he'd used to dress himself, Seto groggily entered the kitchen/dining area of the villa. There he found his brother and sister-in-law feeding his two nephews whilst watching the TV mounted on the wall above the breakfast bar.

"Morning bro!" Mokuba greeted with his usual cherry disposition.

"Morning." The polite reply was given as Seto continued his habitual task of finding and making coffee to help wake him up and face the day ahead. He'd left Kisara sleeping and maybe if he was quick enough he could run the search Gwen had asked him for before she awoke; leaving her none the wiser about what 'work' he'd have had to have done before spending the remainder of the day with her and the rest of his family.

On the TV screen the current channel was broadcasting a news story about the strange behaviour of the world's children. _"… we are now living in fear of our children. In fear of what they will say next. In fear of who or what is speaking through them."_ They all recognised the reporter as Trinity Wells, who always seemed to be the one to deliver the biggest and most groundbreaking bulletins to the world. _"We've been given no answers, no hope, no assurance that our children will come first…"_

"Turn it off!" Seto ordered, stuffing full the coffee maker with beans and trying to hide the uneasiness that he felt with being so helpless in the situation involving his daughter.

Rebecca obliged and used the remote to put the TV into standby mode. "All the channels are pretty much saying the same thing." She began to explain, knowing that her natural informative behaviour wouldn't be investigated more by her husband as she informed her boss of their current investigation's development. "No-one truly knows what's going on, though most fingers are pointing towards the UK for answers as they seem to be the target recipients for these messages. Their Prime Minister has even broadcasted a speech encouraging people to stay calm and go about their daily business."

"I bet you that he hasn't got any kids himself." Seto grumbled as the fresh coffee whirled and whined before it gushed into his cup.

"Anathema's going to be okay; there's nothing to worry about." Mokuba tried to reassure his brother who he sensed was concerned over the little girl. "Whatever this thing is, it won't harm her whilst we're around."

Seto gave a half-hearted smile at the way his brother was trying to console him over something that he knew nothing about. "I hope you're right Mokie."

Carefully he carried his boiling hot drink over to the bar and sat down, just narrowly missing a spoonful of soggy cereal which one of the twins sent flying through the air before then being told off by their mother for the naughty action.

The sound of Seto's cell phone could now be heard and grew louder as Kisara, who had been awoken by the sound of the emitting noise, brought it through to her husband.

"Don't worry it's not work." She told him as he looked at her apologetically for having had her sleep disturbed again. "Ianto's calling you."

_Ianto?_ Seto took the phone and looked at it hesitantly. It could quite possibly be his friend, but what if the Welshman's phone had fallen into the wrong hands and it was now being used to track him down? Not that they'd succeed with finding them now that they were in UNIT's sanctuary, but still…?

Noticing the strange looks he was beginning to receive from gawking at the handset, he finally took the call. "Ianto?"

"Yup; still can't talk though." His tone of voice was a lot more casual than the last time they'd spoken. "Letting you know that the team's back together, plus Rhys, and we're aiming to continue working on the case."

"That's good to know." Seto smirked with relief but felt uncomfortable with taking such a call around his brother and wife, who thankfully were unable to hear what the Welshman was saying.

"We're going to need your help though." Ianto continued. "Tosh had some programme, - an emergency network, - created for just such an occasion if Torchwood ever found itself dispersed and offline. I need you to access it and transfer across the information Gwen asked you to gather. From there we'll be able to connect and work together more easily. Just as soon as we acquire some equipment to hook up too; shouldn't take us that long though."

"Okay." He gave just a one word answer, but had he been on his own then he would have probably confessed to not having started the search on the names he'd been given.

"And Seto," The Welshman added as an afterthought before he was about to hang up. "Give Mokuba my belated regards for yesterday."

"Will do." Seto grinned into an already dead line and placed his cell phone away.

"Well, what did he say?" Kisara asked a little too enthusiastically as she was keen to know. "Is he and Jack working to figure out why the children are acting so peculiar? That's the kind of thing that they do, isn't it?"

"Actually, yes." He used this as a chance to ease his wife's worry. Even if it was mostly lies, she didn't need the extra stress, especially since it wasn't healthy for their unborn child. "Torchwood _are_ on the case and insist that everything is fine; just some slight problems on the aliens' part in relaying their _peaceful _communications via the children. It's in the process of being sorted as we speak."

"See! What did I tell you?" Mokuba grinned at his brother. "Nothing to worry about."

Since the Dalek's invasion a couple of years back it was quite surprising at just how accepting the world had become towards the thought of the possibility of other life out there in the universe. But then again, with just about everyone having an 'encounter' story to tell, relating to the time that the Earth had been stolen, maybe it wasn't so surprising after all. It was pretty hard to deny the fact that something existed when it had been witnessed on such a huge scale.

"Thank god for that!" Kisara sighed with relief and made her way over towards her husband's waiting arms. She sat on his lap and the pair kissed only to be broken apart by a disgusted noise which came from Anathema as she entered the scene.

"Yuk! You two are always kissing and hugging!"

"And good morning to you too." Seto sneered over the murmurs of laughter that escaped from the other adults in response to the little girl's remark. Quite often he wondered if Anathema had inherited some kind of scornful alarm-type gene from his stepbrother that summoned her whenever he and Kisara were together. Maybe he'd ask Ianto if there was any kind of futuristic device stored away in the Hub's archives, - Would they have been protected from or survived the explosion?, - to help determine whether or not his suspicion held any truth to it?

"Oh, I almost forgot!" With his mind brought back to his Welsh friend he relayed the requested message to his brother. "Ianto sends his regards for yesterday."

"Oh-kay?" Mokuba drew out the word with a bemused look on his face. "Why would he bother about something like that? He's _your _friend, not mine. That would have been like me passing on all the well wishes that Yugi had spoken to me over the years which were intended for you."

"Really?" Seto questioned with a raised brow. "During all those years Yugi actually gave you messages of good will that were meant for me?"

"Yeah." The younger brother scoffed before shovelling his breakfast into his mouth. "Not that you'd have appreciated them at the time."

It was true. Until just a few months back when he had made amends with his old Duel Monsters rival, Seto wouldn't have cared whether the messages had been passed on or not. Even so, it was still a pretty mean and spiteful thing for his brother to bring up right now; something he felt needed a scornful retaliation. "At least Ianto made an effort to wish you well, unlike a certain _doctor _friend of yours."

Mokuba stopped eating and pushed the remnants of his breakfast away from him. "He's busy I suspect." He simply stated, not wanting to get into a pointless bicker with his brother regarding the timelord, but so couldn't help himself as he added, "Not everyone has the luxury of lounging around playing games like Jack and his team. They've never saved the world on a scale like he has."

"You don't know that Mokie." Rebecca cut in to try and dispel the heated feelings between the two brothers. She hated it when they disagreed on something, even if it wasn't meant as serious as it may sound. "Just like Seto doesn't know about what may be keeping the Doctor away."

"I do!" Anathema exclaimed proudly as she tried to join in with the adults' conversation. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

"If only it were that easy." Seto smirked and playfully ruffled her hair.

Mokuba stood up and began to take the son nearest to him out of his highchair. "Come on Noah …"

"I think you'll find that's Arthur." Rebecca pointed out politely. Would her husband ever learn to tell the twins apart?

"Whatever." He shrugged and then took the correct Noah out of his highchair too. "We're going to change and then head down to the beach and build sandcastles. You know where we are if anyone wants to join us." Holding one of the twins' hands with each of his he led them away through the villa, his wife soon following on after them.

"I wanna build a sandcastle too!" Anathema tugged excitedly at Seto's arm. "Build one with me please Daddy?"

"I can't." He frowned apologetically. "I have some work that I need to take care of."

"You said earlier that it could wait." Kisara reminded her husband. "Besides, you shouldn't have gone to all of the trouble of arranging this surprise vacation if you were only going to spend it working like any other day. Come on; how long is it going to take you to build one little sandcastle with your family?"

"Okay." Seto insisted as he caved in to the two pairs of pleading blue eyes staring simultaneously at him. "But just the one."

_8888888888888888888888888888_

A whole day of sandcastle rebuilding later, thanks to all three of the children and a certain younger brother refusing to act his age who kept knocking his efforts down and then begging for more to be re-built, Seto managed to finally sneak off and lock himself in the villa's study whilst he went about Gwen's requested search and hooking up to the emergency network like Ianto had instructed.

The computer he had to work with wasn't anything special. Just a standard everyday use piece of junk that UNIT had thrown into the kitting out of its safeguard premises. It was far outdated when compared to his own technology and the speed of which it performed at was laughably slow.

After having only been able to Google and gather as much information as he could on the names he'd been supplied with, Seto then set to work on the painfully slow connection to the software that Tosh had created. So far he'd acquired a rather weak connection to the system which was also busy trying to supply him with visual and audio link in the process of joining with his borrowed inferior machine.

There was a small celebratory noise accompanied by a flashing message that altered Seto to the fact that he now had audio linkage. He was now able to here the sound of his friends' voices; clearly they'd beat him to it and connected to the emergency network before him. Although he could hear them, they were unable to hear him.

"What did it feel like?" Ianto spoke. "I mean, getting blown up?"

"Wasn't the best of days." Jack admitted.

"No, but … did you feel it? Or did everything just go black?"

"I felt it."

"Shit!"

"Yeah."

Silence now followed and it was pretty clear to Seto that he had just overheard a confiding moment between his two friends. He felt uneasy and slightly guilty for intruding even though he didn't intend to.

Ianto broke the silence as he continued to question further. "Do you ever think that one day your luck will run out? That you won't come back?"

"I'm a fixed point in time and space; that's what the Doctor says. I think that means it's forever."

Another moment of silence and then Seto's computer informed him of visual connection.

"So one day you'll see me die, - of old age, - and just keep going?"

"Yeah."

Both of his friends looked pretty saddened by the thought that one day their time together would end. It was something Seto hadn't really thought about either as Jack would outlive him too and everybody else that the older man cared about. No amount of loneliness that he'd ever felt in his life could even possibly come close to what his friend had to endure.

"We better make the most of it then." The Welshman put on a brave face though the recently inflicted wound on his left cheek stopped him from forcing a smile.

"Suppose." Jack managed to smile back and then returned to typing on his stolen laptop.

"Like right now?"

_What!_ His friend may have spoken with a deadpan tone, but Seto was familiar with the suggestive wit. During all the time he'd known them it was always the captain who had made the sexual implications so he was highly surprised to have witnessed it the other way around. Of course he'd have preferred not to have witnessed such moments at all and began typing frantically to try and complete the connections so that they could see and hear him too.

There was a smirk on Jack's otherwise stunned face. "Ianto, the world could be ending."

"The world's always ending." He shot back. "And I have missed that coat."

There was a little laugh before Jack turned to shout behind him. "Rhys! Do you want to take the car and go to those shops down by the wharf, we need some…discs for these things, should take about twenty minutes…"

"Thirty minutes." Ianto chirped in.

"Thirty." The amendment was relayed.

"I'll go later." Rhys' reply was only just heard over the computers' link-up. "The beans are almost done."

"The beans are almost done." Jack relayed again.

"Bloody beans!" Ianto grumbled sulkily. He was about to return to typing on his keyboard but jumped with surprise at the visual image of Seto that suddenly appeared on the screen.

"Don't be too hard on those beans" The CEO grinned. "After all, you guys _do_ have more important matters to be attending to."

"How much did you hear?" There was an air of urgency in the Welshman's voice.

"_The world's always ending."_ Seto quoted his friend from a moment ago, lying to put his friend at ease over the intimate heart to heart he'd actually overheard.

"Ha-ha, look at you!" Jack laughed at the sight of his friend. "You've had your hair cut. Very nice too; makes you look more rugged and manly instead of that thing you had going before with those bangs…"

"If I'd wanted to talk fashion, I'd have called Naoko." Seto retorted un-amused at the pointless chit-chat. "We have work to do Jack."

"Have I ever told you, you're a killjoy?" The captain questioned with a pout.

"Yes." The CEO sighed tiredly. "Plenty of times; make sure that it's engraved on my tombstone." He hammered a string of keys on his end of the link to send all of the files that he had gathered onto the emergency network for the two other men to view, except his super slow machine was having none of it.

"Whoa, that's nice!" Ianto exclaimed as he had continued with his own task. "Look at that. Face recognition software." On his screen an image of a clean shaven man was scanned and then the system fished through every data record ever created on the man in question, providing them with a more recent image of him now sporting a beard. "Arrested two hours ago in London. Wouldn't give his name but _that_ is Clement MacDonald."

"The man from the hospital?" Seto asked to show that he was paying attention whilst he battled with UNIT's poor excuse of a computer.

A cell phone rang and Ianto took the call. "Gwen?" He continued to converse with her, leaving Jack and Seto to talk amongst themselves.

"We could do with that info now. Anytime, when you're ready!" The captain was becoming impatient with the transfer of data from his friend and it sounded in his sarcasm.

"You'll get it as soon as this piece of prehistoric junk has learnt to comply." Seto hissed in response. He slammed down on several keys as the first attempt to transfer the data had timed out and failed him. "Is it a good idea for you guys to be still using your cell phones to contact each other? What if the calls are traced?"

"Oh they're not technically 'ours' so to speak since they're stolen, so no chance of these giving our location away." Jack confessed. "Which reminds me, you're going to need my new number. I'll call you now so that you can save it." He did just that.

Seto cancelled the ringing on his cell phone and edited the unknown number to display 'Jack' for future calls.

"Aren't you going to ask about Gwen?" Jack asked as he stared at the busy CEO via their webcams.

"What about her?" Seto replied as he watched the progress bar for his second upload attempt.

"About where she is?"

"Nope, but I guess you're going to tell me anyway."

"She's gone to meet up with a potential recruit we'd like to use as an insider to the government who ordered my execution and are trying to keep this thing involving the children under wraps."

"That'd be Lois right?" Seto asked, guessing that the 'new best friend' Gwen had mentioned was who was being sent undercover.

"Yeah. How'd you know about her?"

"Gwen told me; amongst other things."

"You two are talking again?" Jack seemed a little surprised. "Geez, you two act like a couple of school kids sometimes with your fall outs and making ups. Anything else happen whilst I was encased in cement?"

_Cement? _He was kidding right? Before Seto got chance to ask the other man to explain what he'd meant, Ianto had rejoined the conversation since his call with Gwen had now come to an end.

"Actually, she's finished with Lois, - it's down to her now if she uses the lenses or not, - and now Gwen's going to attempt to bail out Clement MacDonald from the police station where he's being held."

"So, what's his story?" Jack asked as he pointed to the picture of the bearded man on his screen who his lover had just mentioned.

"Ah, well, according to Gwen it was your classic alien abduction back when he was a kid." The Welshman began to explain and brought up further records on his monitor for the captain to examine if he needed. "1965. He was living ten miles outside Arbroath; the Holy Tree Lodge. It was an orphanage."

Jack froze from hearing the details.

"Looked up the files." Ianto continued oblivious to his lover's reaction. "The kids were taken away November 1965. The lodge was closing down. They were being taken to a second care home called Harbour Heights in Plymouth, except that's where the records stopped. There's no trace of them arriving. I mean, it was the sixties; a lot of paperwork's gone missing. But if what he's saying is true, maybe they never got there."

"Jack?" Seto had noticed his friend's trace like status. Did he know something?

A noise from Ianto's computer indicating a successful receipt of the gathered information sent from the CEO.

"Show me those people!" Jack ordered as he sprang from his chair.

"What people?" The Welshman asked as his lover now hovered over his shoulder.

"Andrew Staines, Ellen Hunt, Michael Sanders." He reeled off the names of those Seto had researched. "The ones who were killed the same day as me."

"Why, do you think there's a connection?"

"Show me!"

Seto was stunned at the captain's urgency. _Did they know each other?_ He hadn't found anything to suggest that the four people who'd been ordered to be executed by their government had done so.

Ianto tapped away on his keyboard and brought up the requested information on the recently deceased.

"No, no, give me their history." Jack instructed. "Show me them forty years ago."

"What for?" The Welshman questioned.

"Just do it."

Obediently, the images of the three people on screen were placed through the face recognition programme that was already open and ordered to search the records minus forty years. A couple of seconds later it displayed black and white photos of their younger selves. The captain was stunned by the faces he was now looking at and took control over the keyboard so that he could look them over individually.

"Who are they Jack?" Seto asked as he observed his friend's reaction over the webcam. "Did you know them?"

Each one of the faces had brought back a forced forgotten memory which was now clear as day in Jack's mind. "I never knew their names."

"Who were they?" Ianto asked as he leaned back in his seat and stared up at his shaken lover. "Jack, tell me, did you know them?"

The captain didn't answer as he turned away and ran to collect his greatcoat.

"Jack!" Ianto's cry was ignored as his lover left the warehouse which they now called home.

"Hey, the beans are ready!" Rhys announced as he watched the captain zoom by him and couldn't understand why the other man would pass up on a meal. He looked at his fellow Welshman and smiled. "Oh well, more for us I guess."

Ianto swore under his breath as he turned back to face his computer and stared at the image of his friend on screen. "I bloody well hate him sometimes!" He confessed.

"I'm not too fond of him myself." Seto smirked his understatement of the way he felt towards Gwen's husband.

"I'm not talking about Rhys, I'm talking about Jack." Ianto clarified as he sensed that his friend had thought he'd been referring to the other Welshman. "After all this time and he's _still_ keeping us in the dark."

There was a knock on the door to Seto's 'claimed' office space followed by the sound of a little girl wanting her daddy. "Can you tell me a story before I go to bed? Please?"

"Go." Ianto argued as he'd heard Anathema's plea via the audio link. "Your family need you more than we do right now."

"I'll be back later." Seto assured and then closed the connection to Torchwood's system and opened several windows full of company statistics to cover his tracks in case any of his family peered in to see what work he was doing.

He then headed over towards the door, unlocked it and smiled at the little green haired girl waiting patiently for him in the hall. "Is it that time already?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded and then yawned. "This place doesn't have any books so you're going to have to make one up."

"That's not a problem Kiddo." He grinned and picked her up.

"Are you sure you've got the time to spare?" Kisara's voice sounded from further down the hall. The tone she had used and look on her face told Seto that she was cross with him. "Sound's like the only thing you're interested in lately is work."

"That's not true." He insisted.

"Isn't it?" She contended.

Seto's stomach twisted at the thought of a confrontation with the woman he loved. The last thing he wanted was to argue with her but knew that it would be due to his own fault if they did so. "I'm not having this conversation with you." He told her. "Not here; not in front of Anathema."

As he turned to leave, he felt the little girl go rigid in his arms and saw her point out of the window in the hall. "What is it Kiddo?" He asked but got no response as he placed her back down on the ground.

"Is it happening again?" Kisara asked with concern as she approached them both; her fuming exterior gone and prepared for chanting to commence as well as being a lot calmer at having been assured earlier that day that things were being dealt with by Torchwood.

"I don't think so." Seto said and managed to keep his panic hidden well. He glanced out of the window yet saw nothing other than the darkening sky above though the trajectory of the sun told him the direction. "She's pointing west, but at what? What's west?"

"The UK." Rebecca stated as she exited the lounge and joined them in the hall. "It's all over the TV again, come take a look."

Carefully Seto picked up Anathema again and carried her through in to the room. There the huge plasma screen displayed images of children from around the world all pointing in the direction of the British isle.

"… _Yet again, every child has stopped. Every single child in the world." _The news reporter for once wasn't Trinity Wells, but the incident she was covering wasn't anything less important than what had been covered so for to date. _"There seem to be no reports of speech, only that they seem to be indicating something in the sky."_

"What a genius." Mokuba scoffed. "I wonder how long it took her to come to that conclusion?" He received a rather disapproving glare from his wife for having made the remark. "What? Any idiot can see that they're pointing at the sky."

"_According to reports, children in London are all pointing towards the centre of the city. To repeat, children in London all seem to be pointing towards the centre."_

The camera transmitting the breaking news panned across the buildings beside the river Thames and then focused solely on the cloudy sky above. A hole opened up the fluffy barricade and a fiery beam shot down to the proud white building of Thames House.

_Holy shit!_ Seto managed to stop his jaw from dropping in horror at the sight he'd just seen broadcasted on the screen in front of him. Whatever it was that had been controlling the children, it had finally arrived.

"We are here!" Anathema spoke in unison with a shot of a group of children on the live news report.

Kisara stared at her husband. "Ianto did say that these things were peaceful, right?"

Seto nodded as he upheld his lie, and spotted Rebecca eyed him warily; knowing that in fact nobody had a clue what was going on. Not even Jack's almighty Torchwood team.

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During the time it had taken Seto to put Anathema to bed, Mokuba and Rebecca sat snuggled together in the lounge, - the twins having been put to bed before the whole pointing incident, - and with Kisara having chosen to have a nice relaxing soak in the tub to help sooth the aches of her pregnancy, he'd returned to the solitude of the study and reconnected to the Torchwood network.

There'd been no change in the level of information uncovered over the situation and no word from Lois either. Jack was still absent with no explanation since he'd rushed out of the warehouse that afternoon, Gwen was currently making her way back with Clement MacDonald, and Rhys was busy heating up more food, again. And Ianto, well his mind didn't seem to be focused on much at all as he kept an eye on his computer monitor in case of any word from their undercover 'friend'.

"Yan, is something bothering you?" Seto asked him.

"You mean besides the fact that I'm scared shitless thinking about how my sister and her kids are doing? What it is that Jack's not telling us? That we could still be traced here and gunned down by the government at any moment? Wondering just what was transported in to Thames House? How I'm dying for a decent coffee but have to settle for the instant crap. Or …" Ianto turned mute with his ranting.

"Or what?" The CEO pushed.

"Nothing." The Welshman insisted. "In the given context of things, it really doesn't matter."

"I think it does matter." Seto stated and in an urge to get his friend to talk added, "Whatever you say to me will be said in the strictest confidence and not go any further than between us."

Ianto tried to give a smile in response but his wounded cheek hurt too much to manage one. "It's the other night when the bomb exploded. Jack had to force me out of the hub. At first I was busy sealing the tunnels to protect their contents from the blast, - also keep the clean up crews out that would follow in the blast's wake, - and then … I just didn't want to leave him."

"That was a bit foolish." Seto commented on what he'd heard. "You knew he'd be able to come back with being immortal so you'd have only placed yourself in danger."

"I know." Ianto chipped in quickly and re-took control of his explanation. "But something just clicked inside my head. It over rode common sense and what I knew to be the right thing to do, and instead just focused on my own … selfishness of wanting to be with him. And because of that I'll have to live with the extremely vivid memories of what I saw as I ascended the invisible lift."

All went quiet as the Welshman bit down on his wavering lip.

"What did you see?" Seto asked warily.

"Jack." The reply was spoken in a tearful croak. "My eyes never left him for a second. I watched him. Preparing himself for what he knew was to come. Trying to slip into unconsciousness so that it wouldn't be as bad, and not succeeding as he screamed out in pain as the bomb exploded inside him. The force of the explosion tearing him apart into shreds…" He was unable to continue as the event replayed in his head.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that." Seto spoke sombrely and unable to comprehend the absolute horror of the situation explained to him. He had no more words to say on the subject and was actually grateful that attention was drawn to the new arrival as Gwen entered the warehouse with the man she'd sprung from the police station.

"You completely amaze me sometimes you do." Rhys kissed his wife. "I wasn't sure you'd be able to rescue him on your own without all that high tech stuff you guys used to have."

"Ah, I confess, I used my secret weapon." Gwen grinned as she helped the man to sit down and then told everyone, "This is Clem."

"Secret weapon?" Seto asked slightly intrigued as he watched them via the webcam.

"Otherwise known as Andy." Gwen mentioned the friend who had helped her dupe the police station where Clem had been held. She then helped Rhys with serving up food and drink for their guest and changed the subject as she asked Ianto. "Jack not back yet?"

"Nope." The reply was sighed.

The married couple and the older man sat down and engaged in conversation which consisted of a friendly introduction and welcome to the warehouse that they'd named 'Hub 2' thanks to Rhys' handy work painted on the wall.

"Ianto?" Seto tried to get his friend's attention as the younger man had returned to checking their system for more clues on their murder victims to avoid carrying on their conversation from a moment ago. He knew something that would cheer the Welshman up a little. "When this business is all over with, what do you say to a private Duel Monsters tournament?"

"…And who's the queer?"

"Oi!" Ianto shouted defensively at clearly overhearing the way Clem had addressed him. All eyes were now on him and he began to fluster. "It's not 1965 anymore." He quickly buried his head back into his task of checking for contact from Lois once more.

"Don't let that guy get to you." The CEO told his friend.

"I won't." He grumbled. "And yes I would love to play Duel Monsters again sometime." Nothing more was said as Ianto continued to check for any sign of the lenses' use, but paused from hearing a noise coming from his friend's side of the connection.

"Seto!" Kisara shouted as she banged on the locked door. "Open up, I've got food, you haven't eaten since lunch."

"Missing meals" Ianto jeered with a weak lopsided smirk. "That's not healthy at all."

"Don't you start." Seto shoot back as he quickly worked on reopening all of his cover files to fill the monitor screen. "Be back when I can." He cut the connection to his friend and went to open the study door.

Outside the room Kisara stood wrapped in her bathrobe and held up a plate of sandwiches. "Here, I made you these." She forced the plate in to her husband's hands and using that moment of vulnerability for him to keep her out, stepped into the room. Her eyes skimmed over the charts and figures displayed by the computer. "Still busy with your work?"

"Unfortunately so." He sighed as he placed down the sandwiches on to the desk. "I'm hoping not to be too much longer. Why don't you head off to bed and I'll be along as soon I'm done?"

"I'd rather wait." She told him and seated herself down in a huge leather chair across from his workspace. "I know what your 'too much longers' are like. They turn into all nighters."

"Not this time."

"Then you won't mind me waiting here, will you?" Kisara refused to rise from her chosen seat as she glared hard at her husband.

"Of course not." Seto returned to the door, closed it, and prepared himself to be met with the confrontation he'd managed to delay from earlier.

"I don't get it. You go to all of this trouble to arrange a surprise family getaway for Mokuba's birthday and yet you hide yourself away in here for the majority of it?"

"It's just something that can't be helped." Seto answered. "I _need _to make sure this contract is secure..."

"Save it!" Kisara snapped. "I've heard it before."

For a moment, not wanting to argue, Seto considered coming clean and telling his wife everything about his involvement with Torchwood but then decided against it. It wasn't fair lying to her but he didn't want her to worry about the things that he knew and had to deal with. Things that would only make her worry beyond belief and quite possibly put her in danger if she knew too much.

"What's happened to you Seto?" She found the courage to say what was on her mind after losing the last of her patience with him. "These pass seven or eight months you've become more engrossed with your company so that me and Anathema don't get a look in anymore. First it started with the delay of our wedding and now when that little girl needs you, here you are more focused on work than her! We've started becoming second priority to you; something you promised would _never_ happen…"

"How can you say that after today's sandcastle build-a-thon?" He argued back, angered at being told he prioritised his family after everything else. "I just spent the whole day with you guys when _you knew _that I had work to do after receiving last night's phone call."

"One day doesn't get you off the hook from all the others that you missed!" Kisara retorted scornfully. "And don't you dare reuse the explanation of how important this new contract of yours is going to be! You used the same excuse for the last one too. All those late nights in the office. The promise that you wouldn't do it again but just took to working from home instead. Not exactly a massive change there now was it?"

"Well I'm sorry Honey, but my company _is_ our livelihood, and _unfortunately_ it requires _a lot_ of attention from time to time to make sure that _it doesn't_ go bust." There was hint of sarcasm in Seto's annoyed voice, even though he knew he was rightly in the wrong for all the time he'd spent with not only Kaiba Corp but Torchwood too. He kept his voice as cold as he could manage with a guilty conscience. "What exactly is it that you want me to do? Right now Anathema is in bed, you'll soon be behind her, and Mokuba and Becky are huddled up for the night."

"Don't you take that tone with me!" Kisara was tremendously irritated by the way which she had been spoken to.

Not wanting to argue further, Seto turned away from his wife. "I'll make it up to you; I promise." He assured. It was easier to lie if he didn't have to look directly at her. "Unfortunately the current deal I'm working on just happens to coincide with coming here and Anathema's possession, but it's something I need to work on and fast track as soon as possible to secure it. A few more days is all I'm asking for and then…"

"Don't." Kisara stopped him from continuing further. Her emotions now getting the better of her as her voice began to waver. "Don't make yet more promises that you're bound to break."

Seto silently glanced back at her, ashamed with himself for having pushed the woman he loved to the brink of tears all in the name of covering himself from her. Would it really be so bad for her to know the truth about what he was doing?

"Okay." Kisara nodded in bitter agreement. "Stay cooped up in here and work yourself ragged until you've completed securing your contract. But after that Seto I'm warning you. You have one last chance." She took a deep breath to allow herself to say what she was thinking, eyes narrowed as she warned him, "If you _ever_ revert back to putting work before your family again then … I'm gone."

"That's just the hormones talking." Seto pointed out as she had said some pretty outrageous stuff recently during her pregnancy. Nervously he laughed. "You don't mean that Honey."

Kisara's stare didn't falter the slightest as she viewed her husband who wasn't taking her seriously. She got up from her seat and approached the door. "I mean it Seto. One last chance, that's all you're getting."

Just hearing the final caution was like a knife to Seto's heart as he watched his wife exit the study and close the door behind her.

Angry with himself, he struck out and hit a ghastly feline figurine that stood nearby and shattered into fragments as it hit the floor before he then inhaled deeply and counted to ten to compose himself.

Not even giving the wreckage he'd caused a second glance, Seto locked the door before returning to the computer and re-accessed the Torchwood network once more. He had to keep his mind occupied and not wallow in his thoughts of Kisara. Work, whether it was his company or the secret organisation, was just the thing he needed right now.

The visual connection displayed Gwen seated centre with Ianto, Rhys and Clem hovering behind her shoulders as they crowded around her to get a look at the monitor in front of them.

"Nice to have you back with us again." Ianto commented as the second pop-up screen containing the CEO's image appeared next to the footage being transmitted from their insider in room 413 of Themes House. He noticed the disgruntled look and his friend's face. "You two argued, didn't you?"

"Now's not the time to discuss such matters." Seto hissed in response to the Welshman's concern. "What's going on at your end?"

"Lois is using the lenses." Ianto explained. "Give me a moment and I'll hook you up with live footage." Carefully he leaned across Gwen and his fingers ran back and forth across the keyboard. "It's only a streaming job, though an actual hard copy of all this will remain on our laptop here should you wish to view anything that you've missed."

"No, just bring me up to speed with what's going on."

"Okay." Ianto was ready to explain away as the screen was now made available for Seto to see. "That man there is John Frobisher…"

"The Home Office guy who tried to have Jack killed?" Seto asked as he interrupted.

"The very same." Ianto confirmed. "And in that misty tank there in front of him is a species of alien who is calling itself the 4-5-6. Thanks to Lois' position the lenses will relay Frobisher's words via the lip-reading programme, as for the 456's response, that's being transmitted via speakers in the room so she's writing in shorthand for us to read. So far greetings and diplomatic formalities have been explained, and the 456 has agreed not to communicate through the children any longer."

"Shhh!" Gwen waved her hand at her colleague. "I can't hear what's happening."

With the worry of further possession over Anathema put at ease, Seto watched the proceedings taking place within the room at Themes House.

"_I've been given a request for specific information."_ Frobisher was talking as he glanced at a piece of paper that he'd just been handed. _"It has been asked, why the 456 chose Great Britain as its chosen point of embarkation?"_

"We came here." Ianto read aloud the written shorthand.

"Because…?" Gwen asked.

"That's all it said." Seto told her. He'd read the insider woman's notepad for himself.

A moment later and Lois wrote more which Ianto continued to read aloud. "You have no significance. You are middlemen."

"That's a lie 'cause it's been here before, that's why it's here now." Gwen pointed out what they'd learnt from the children's possessed chanting. "Why… why is it lying?"

"It's Frobisher." Ianto stated instantly without further thought. "He's got that thing to lie. They're on the same side. Whatever happened in the past, they're hiding it."

_We have a request._ Seto read the shorthand.

"_By all means."_

_We want a gift._

"_Of course."_ Frobisher seemed to tense a little._ "But, uh… what nature of gift exactly?"_

"A gift." Ianto was now reading out Lois' notes again.

"_Gladly. But what do you want?"_

_We want your children. _A chill ran down Seto's spine as he read the response and then watched as something inside the tank repeatedly thrashed at the glass to leave behind a green slime.

"We will take your children." The horror sounded in Ianto's gasping voice and everyone remained quiet as each of them tried to take in what had been said.

"What the hell for?" Rhys was the only one brave enough to think his angered demand out loud.

"_I'm sorry, I…" _Frobisher stammered. _"Sorry, I think there might be a problem with the translation. If I could just ask…"_

"They want to take them, like they did before, like the man did." Clem's distraught voice drowned out the speech from inside the conference room. He sniffed deeply. "He's coming back. He's coming back!"

"Not now, Clem. Just wait." Gwen told him as she tried to stay focused on what Lois was seeing.

"He's coming. He's coming…" The man continued and she had no choice but to abandon her seat whilst she tried to calm him as he became even more panicky. "He's coming. He's coming. He's coming…"

Ignoring the commotion in the warehouse Seto continued to follow the live feed on his own.

"_By children, you mean …"_

_Your descendants. The offspring of the human race. _

"_How many?"_ Frobisher gravely asked.

_Ten percent. We want ten percent. We want ten percent of the children of this world._ The CEO felt sicker and sicker with each response that the creature gave.

There was no further activity from within the conference room and Seto's attention now drew into the warehouse where Gwen tried to console Clem.

"He hasn't changed. He's still the same." The man was saying and kept gesturing towards the shadowy entrance where a greatcoated figure stepped out from as Jack had finally returned to his team. "He's the same, he's the same. All those years… How can he be the same?"

"What's he talking about Jack?" Gwen asked as she stood with an arm on either side of Clem as she kept him steady where he stood.

"Clement MacDonald." The captain blankly spoke the other man's name. "Just another name. It was _easier_ if you didn't know the names."

"You were there?" Seto asked and his voice carried out across to where his friends stood. His mind was now too troubled to process information on its own. "In 1965?"

"He was the man." Clem told the woman who had hold of him and then started back in horror at the captain.

"No, no, this is what he does, you see. He fights them. He fights aliens." She tried to look the terrified man in the eyes to reassure him but still he cowered away. "Isn't that right Jack?" The call to and reply from her boss would surely help ease the tension.

"No."

For a moment there was pure silence at hearing Jack's calm reply.

"Then what were you doing there?" Seto asked. If his friend wasn't there to stop the 456 from taking the children …?

"I gave them the kids." The captain's face remained blank and emotionless.

_No!_ Seto couldn't believe what they had been told and from the looks of it neither could any of his Welsh friends as Rhys turned and hung his head, Ianto's eyes widened, and Gwen gingerly let go of Clem as she continued to stare and edged closer to the man she'd blindly followed since joining the team.

"1965, I gave them twelve children."

"What for?" Gwen asked as she now stood in front of her beloved captain.

Jack's face remained blank and his head tilted slightly as though puzzled as to why she'd ask such a thing. "As a gift."


	4. Day Four

**No reviews for the last chapter? :(**

**Contains dialogue from 'Day Four' which I can't take credit for.**

**I also fiddled with a couple of scenes/smushed them together to fit this fic.**

**Chapter Four**

In the study of UNIT's safe house, Seto sat in stunned silence which was mirrored by the London warehouse on the other side of the computer link-up. As a result of the bombshell that had been dropped by Jack's inconceivable revelation, it now had him and the others questioning the morality of the captain in their own solitary thoughts.

"1965, I gave them twelve children." The clarification was given with a heavy heart yet portrayed with a vacant manner once more.

"Why Jack?" Seto asked his friend. To be told 'as a gift' was not an explanation he was willing to except. There had to be more to it than that.

"Back then I worked as a freelancer for Torchwood." Jack went on. "One night I was strategically placed on an assignment to help the government deliver a ransom demand. And that demand just happened to be for twelve children."

Rhys failed to hold his tongue any longer and voiced his thoughts angrily towards the man he'd previously begun to admire. "That's bloody sick our government would do that! And the fact that you went along with it …!"

"Shhh!" Gwen gestured for her husband to be quiet as Clem still cowered and clung to her. Gently she eased him off and stepped forward. "Continue Jack. Surely there's more to it? Please tell me there is."

The five pairs of inquisitive hurt and infuriated eyes all fixed on the captain and unnerved him. It didn't show through his posture much, if at all, as he proceeded with his explanation. "There was an outbreak of a brand new strain of Indonesian flu at the time. Research predicted that it would quickly mutate and kill up to twenty-five million people if a cure wasn't found swiftly. The 456 agreed to give us the antivirus required in exchange for the children."

"You just handed them over and hoped for the best?" She was still finding it hard to side with her boss. Maybe if it had been something else besides children, adults even, then the shock factor wouldn't have distorted her reasoning from his?

"A dozen lives sacrificed to save millions; it seemed like a good deal." Jack wasn't sure what else to say to make them fully understand the situation he and the handful of others had been placed in that night. "Once they had the children the antivirus was handed over, as promised and as a result, not a single soul died from the flu epidemic after that."

The confused and stern glares were now beginning to melt. Except for the one man who battled with his burning anger. "You are in _every_ nightmare I've ever had." Clem stated as he now stood by himself where Gwen had left him.

"I'm sorry." The captain's demeanour finally fell as he began to show his remorse towards the man whose life he'd ruined. "I'm really sorry."

Seeing his lover falter, Ianto stepped forward to offer his support. At the same time, Clem leapt at Gwen and snatched the gun she had tucked in her belt.

"_Gwen!_" Both Rhys and Seto called out their concerned warning at seeing the man draw the weapon from her.

_BANG!_ The sound of the small blast ran through the air and echoed in the warehouse. Jack fell down as a result of accurately lucky aim of the spontaneous shot to his heart.

As though hypnotised for a moment each of them stared at the captain's lifeless form as it flopped down to the ground. This time around, knowing that his friend would revive, it didn't shock Seto nearly half as much as having seen the man's lifeless body sprawled out before the crimson Dalek. Still, it was startling to see such a thing happen and he guessed that his expression would have been almost identical to those worn by his two Welsh friends as he watched Ianto now sprint across to Jack.

Gwen managed to shake her stunned state and swiftly began to talk in an attempt to calm the shooter. "Okay, so…"

"Stay away!"

"Give me the gun Clem. Come on." She tried to coax him into handing the weapon over before more people got hurt.

"You're on his side!" He shouted hysterically and waved the gun in front of him.

"Give it to me." Gwen didn't even seem phased by the barrel now pointing directly at her. She knew that the man was merely shocked and scared by what he had just done.

"And he's on _their_ side!" Clem gestured to the still greatcoated body as Ianto knelt down and cradled Jack's upper torso in his lap.

"Okay, it's over..." Still she tried to get through to him as he shouted over her words.

"You're all involved!"

"Let him go." Rhys called to his wife, his heart racing at the thought of something bad happening to her and their baby. "He's dangerous, man."

"I'm not dangerous!" Clem now turned the gun on the interfering Welshman.

Quicker than a flash, Gwen placed herself in the middle of the standoff. "We know! We know you're not."

Seto felt irritated with himself for being so helpless as he watched his friend willingly put herself at risk for her husband. If he had been there, he'd waste no time in jumping the old man to disarm him, so why didn't the idiot Welshman?

"We know that." She was pleased to see the anger drain from Clem's face as her talking paid off.

"But that's a lie. Isn't it? Isn't it?" The man began to stammer. "We both know it. I … killed a man." He looked over at Jack and Ianto before deciding, "I am dangerous."

A passing freight train could be faintly heard during the moment that Clem had fallen silent as the result of his actions sinking in to his mind at having killed the man who haunted his dreams.

Gingerly Gwen stepped forward to him. "Can I take that?"

There was no reply so she promptly took another couple of steps and snatched back her gun which she then held out for Rhys to collect whilst she comforted the man who fought to hold back his sorrow. "There we are."

The CEO's eyes wandered from the scene of console as he watched his friend's husband disappear to hide the gun someplace safe. They then flickered over to the couple huddled on the floor as he wondered just how long it would be before the captain revived.

"But it wasn't my fault." Clem tried to explain as he pulled back from the offering of a shoulder to cry on. He wearily looked upwards through the broken roof and out to the stars above. "There is something up there. They do want children." His view angled back to Jack and the painful memory of his youth repeated in his mind once more as he told Gwen, "That man held my hand … and took me to them."

Suddenly, the sound of a huge gasp erupted from the dead man's mouth and caused Clem to scream in fright.

"This is normal, okay? This is what he does. I told you he was going to be okay." Seto could hear Gwen's voice trying to calm the man once more as he too watched in stunned amazement at what he saw: knowing that his friend was immortal but having had never actually witnessed him coming back to life before. It was both fascinating and disturbing at the same time as Jack visibly shook with fear from the rebirth, trying to sit up and frantically gripping at the arms of his lover who restrained him with a firm yet comforting embrace.

"No! No!" Clem shouted his disbelief before bolting into the darkness of the night.

"Clem?" Gwen was quick to follow after him, leaving the two men alone on the warehouse floor and Seto on the other side of the visual link-up.

"Is he okay?" Seto asked the Welshman as he became concerned over the constant shaking of his immortal friend.

"Yes." Ianto nodded. "He'll be fine. Like Gwen told Clem, 'this is normal'." His hold became tighter and he pulled Jack closer to him.

Seto looked at the clock. It was getting extremely late, or extremely early depending on how you viewed the first few hours of the new day. For a while the thought of the 456's demand had left his mind as it'd become preoccupied with the warehouse drama, but now his stomach flipped at the mere thought of handing over more children to them. Surely Jack wouldn't do that again this time?

"You should get some rest." Ianto told him as he approached the computer, on his own without Jack and sat down in the chair. "It's even later there than it is here."

"I can't." Seto shook his head. "Not after what we now know about the children."

"Then just go be with Kisara." The Welshman urged. "I take it that the two of you didn't kiss and make up after your fallout?"

He didn't want to elaborate on the subject, just as he sensed that his friend didn't want to talk about the facts they'd uncovered with the help of the lenses Lois wore, but gave a partially defeated sigh as he admitted, "If I'm not careful then I'm going to lose her."

"So tell her about your involvement with Torchwood."

"Only if you tell Rhiannon about yours."

The two friends became locked in a stalemate conversation as neither of them was prepared to back down and break the truth to their loved ones.

Silently Jack came up behind Ianto and casually positioned himself on the table's ledge. The usually happy go lucky captain that had been present earlier that day was long gone as he sat with a morbid face and unable to look either of the younger men in the eye. Not a single word was spoken between the three friends as they continued to sit there in silence.

Eventually the Welshman spoke but made no attempt at eye contact with the captain. "Can't believe you didn't mention this before."

"They didn't speak through kids back then." Jack explained sombrely. "I didn't recognise the signs at first."

Ianto glanced up at his lover. "That's not what I meant." Swiftly he looked away again.

"Please Yantie, don't turn away from me." A hand gently rested on his shoulder. "You were the only one who stood by me after what happened to Jasmine. I need that same support again right now."

"So you want my support, but you're not willing to confide in me like I do to you, in order to gain it?" The Welshman scoffed. "Does our relationship have to be full of double standards?" He received no answer. "And just for the record; Jasmine was _one_ child you gave up in order to save the _whole _of humanity. That I can understand, but I don't see how you could justify_ twelve _children to save a _fraction _of our country's population."

"It wasn't easy for me to stand there and watch them go." Jack insisted as he fought to defend the decision that had been made over forty years ago. "To make it simpler I insisted that orphans were chosen so that they didn't leave behind anyone to question their disappearance or mourn for them once they'd gone." He stopped his validation as he remembered the CEO on the other side of the link-up and began to stutter with fright of the offence he may have caused the man who was once an orphan himself. "I didn't mean … The kids … I …"

"Forget trying to explain it." Seto aimed to ease his friend's conscience as he knew the situation had been tough for his friend to make the sacrifice in the first place. "It's a sad truth, but those kids weren't missed by any body. Better them than to tear twelve families apart."

"Thank you." Jack whispered with relief of still having the younger man's support. If only he could get Ianto to feel the same; somewhat unlikely right now as his lover was hurting from the lack of openness he'd been given.

Rhys appeared back on the scene. "They're coming back." He gestured to outside where Gwen and Clem slowly made their way closer towards the open warehouse door.

The captain stood up and prepared himself to face Clem once more.

"I can't believe that you're siding with him!" Ianto quietly hissed at Seto as Jack moved away from them.

"And what would you have done had you been there?" Seto asked with a questioning look as he diverted the course of conversation. He didn't want to get into an argument about favouring one friend over another.

"The only solution that works when it comes to bullies." The Welshman stared hard at his friend. "Stand up and fight them. That's what Jack should have done."

It was hard for Seto to disagree with what had been said. He'd come across his fair share of bullies during his life and the 456 weren't all that different once you took away the alien factor. Perhaps his friend was right with the simple solution? But how were they meant to take a stand? He stifled a tired yawn.

"Go." Ianto ordered his friend. "There's nothing more that you can do right now, so rest while you can." His fingers began to hammer at the keyboard as he wasn't prepared to take no for an answer.

Seto's monitor suddenly went blank as his link up was cancelled and then blocked from reconnecting to the Torchwood network. He cursed his friend for the act which would take him ages to rectify the connection using UNIT's outdated piece of equipment.

Being the stubborn man that he was and suppressing another show of drowsiness, Seto set straight to work at accessing the Torchwood network from scratch once more. Surely his Welsh friend was wrong. There had to be something he could do?

In an attempt to ignore the frustration caused by the non-complying hardware, his mind began to wander back to the behaviour of the gay couple that he'd just witnessed which had disturbed him a little. There was no doubt that the two men cared deeply for each other, - as had been currently proven by the Welshman's account of the hub explosion and the captain's revival, - but even still, after countless promises of vowing to let his lover closer and be more open, Jack still kept a great many things from Ianto. Watching them had provided Seto with an insight of what his relationship would be like with Kisara if he carried on the way he was right now. In fact, hadn't it already gotten to that point?

As Seto waited for the slow processing speed of the computer to carry out the command he'd given, he leaned back in his chair, thoughtfully weighing up the pros and cons for revealing his secret to his wife. It wasn't too long until he fell asleep before the task bar had even completed.

8888888888888888888888888888

"Hey, wake up." Rebecca's voice was soft as she prodded at her brother-in-law asleep in the chair.

It took a moment to have effect but slowly Seto opened his eyes. "Huh?" Without warning he suddenly sat upright. "I fell asleep?"

"Yep, and whatever it was you were doing on the computer timed out on you too."

"Why that no good piece of …!"

"Shhh, keep it down." Rebecca hissed. "People are still sleeping."

"What time is it?" He asked before assaulting the keyboard with his forceful typing.

"A little after nine." It was hard for her to decide whether or not the look she received was Seto disgusted with himself for waking up so late or the fact that others were still snoozing. "We were all up late last night and this is 'a vacation' after all. The only reason I'm up is because of the twins who are happily playing in the pen next door." She carefully tip-toed over the broken figurine fragments on the floor and perched on the desk top were the uneaten sandwiches still sat. "So what's the inside scoop with the possessed children?"

"You really _don't_ want to know." Seto assured as he waited for the computer to response once more.

"Yes, I do." Rebecca retorted. "And since it's actual Torchwood business then I'd say I have the _right_ to know."

He wasn't going to argue with her. It was pointless since she could be just as stubborn as him. Turning the chair on its pivot he faced her. "There's an alien in London which has issued an unreasonable demand. And since the British government tried to have Torchwood destroyed during their early contact phases with this thing for fear we'd intervene, the world is now powerless to stop it." Seto decided that she'd be better off not knowing about the details of the 456's demand or the captain's trade off secret. "I'm working with Jack and co to figure out our options."

"So that's why you've been cooped up in here." Rebecca nodded her understanding and looked at him considerately. "You always devote yourself so much to your work, whatever it may involve, but don't you think it's time to recruit more of a team to help share that weight?"

"I'm one step ahead of you there Becky. Once we return to Domino we'll have a new member."

"Really? Who?"

"Diana."

"Your secretary?" She didn't sound impressed.

"I've seen that woman's credentials, and I can tell you that she's wasted on that job. Plus she already has loyalty to me."

Rebecca wasn't quite convinced but she trusted his judgement. "Yeah, well, you're not as far ahead of me as you like to think you are. I've already compiled a list of possible candidates which I think you should take a look at; when this is over with of course." She gave a bit of a pause before adding, "And then hopefully, once we have a new addition to the team, things will become better between you can Kisara."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Seto tried to shrug off his troubles as he had no desire to talk about them with her. "The two of us are just fine."

"Oh please!" Rebecca rolled her eyes. "I could overhear parts of your little disagreement last night, not to mention the phone conversation you had the other day after the all-nighter you pulled to update the T3 system." She watched as he ignored her words and returned to hammering the keyboard with added frustration. A sigh escaped her as she knew that it would be unlikely she'd get anything further out of him regarding his personal affairs. "Do you want me to talk to her? A quiet word from the wife of a CEO to another to help smooth this situation for you?"

Seto stopped his typing and scoffed. "I highly doubt that your experience of being married to my brother would match that of hers to me. For starters, mine and Mokuba's schedules and workloads differ greatly in comparison."

"That's only because he has a vast and trusty team of employees who share the job of helping him run KaibaLand according to his command, just like they're doing right now since you had him whisked away without warning. Whereas you on the other hand prefer to take on a heftier workload, thriving off your own efforts, so have very few staff to dispel it to once it becomes too much." She pointed out the differences which resulted in how much time each brother spent in their offices working and at home with their families.

Again her words were being ignored by the stubbornness of her brother-in-law. She wasn't getting anywhere with him on the personal matter so swung the conversation back into Torchwood territory regarding the alien in London. "What kind of demand has been made by this thing?"

"Children." Seto told the growingly aggravated emerald eyes peering at him through her spectacles. He figured that she'd be less likely to divert the conversation back to his married life if he gave her the 456 information. "They want children."

Rebecca gave a horrified gasp. "What for?"

"We don't know."

She wasted no time in reeling off her next question. "How many?"

"Ten percent."

"Of the UK's children?"

"No." He shook his head in response. "They want ten percent of _the world's_ children."

Rebecca became speechless at hearing the actual demand that had been made. It took her a moment to find her voice again. "Nobody's touching my boys. I'll die protecting them if I have to."

"Since they weren't affected by the possession I think that they're exempt from their criteria. Besides, we're safe here. No one is going to take them." Seto assured, hoping that he wouldn't be proven wrong somehow if UNIT happened to turn on them. "If the British government quickly sees sense and lets Torchwood step in, then the demand will be quashed."

The sound of toys clashing together came from the other room where the twins were left playing and was then followed by the sound of one of them crying.

"I better go and see what they're up to." Rebecca got up to leave and go check that her sons weren't harming in each other as she now heard more petty squabbles of sibling rivalry. She gave Seto one last glance before she left the room. "I'll do my best with Kisara; keep her and Mokuba distracted so that you're left in peace and able to work on this case."

He nodded his thanks and then a thought hit him as he watched her prepare to close the door. "Becky?" He asked and got her attention. "That door was locked when I started working last night, so how did you manage to open it to get in here?"

"No matter how much advanced technology and gizmos you may have, some things can be easily overcome with a little bit of thought and dexterity." She gave the tiniest of smirks. "In other words, I picked the lock." The curve of her mouth disappeared and she gave Seto a solemn look. "You'll figure out a way to stop that thing. I know you will." And with that, she left the room completely and closed the door behind her.

For a moment Seto thought about what the blonde had said. She still had faith in him. The belief that he had been beginning to lose sight of himself after being so unequipped, isolated and detached from the friends so far away. Maybe he should take a leaf out of her book and re-examine the situation to find a solution?

Now with the little bit of newfound enthusiasm Seto turned back to the primitive machine and bashed away at he keys once more.

Almost two hours later he had managed to reconnect to the Torchwood network. There was no visual or audio link-up yet though as the computer was still performing that task.

Frustrated at having nothing to do during the wait for the connection with his friends to be restored, and aware that it was likely to slow the processing speed down further, - if that was at all possible for UNIT's piece of junk, - Seto searched through the backlog of footage that had been recorded via the undercover contact lenses. What he saw shocked and sickened him even more as the 456 invited the humans inside its tank with a video camera so that they could see what became of the children it had taken.

The cameraman, who was kitted up in a red hazard suit, entered into the tank and the form of the mysterious alien slowly came into view. It was one creature yet it had three heads, each on the end of an extremely long neck. There were no visible eyes on the winkled heads that had long antenna like crests and folds of skin forming down in snouts similarly shaped to insect pincers and covered in a green slime. The camera panned the alien and there strapped to the main body was one of the children who had been taken back in 1965. Multiple vine-like tubes entered into the boy whose mouth was covered and eyes staring wide open in what Seto assumed to be eternal sorrow whilst the 456 fed off him like some kind of parasite.

His empty stomach churned and Seto was glad of the distraction as a visual of his friends popped up on screen now that the computer program had successful regained video link-up. He watched his friends conversing with each other, completely unaware of his surveillance; obviously the computer hadn't gotten as far as linking them up with him yet. Still, he had no sound and pretty easily lost interest in trying to lip read the sombre faces, so returned to surveying the previously recorded footage to get up to date on the developments he'd missed.

What he now saw was a room full of British government officials gathered around a huge table as they discussed ways in which to deal with their alien visitor. After ruling out a possible attack on them as no further traces had be found, indicating that they were way beyond the technical abilities of the human race, it was then decided that they would hand over a bunch of children, - not as many as had been demanded, - but hoped that using the offspring of failed Asylum seekers would mean not sacrificing the country's own, yet still satisfy the 456 in the hope that they'd leave.

The CEO's blood boiled in anger at the way the bunch of men and woman calmly sat and condemned the innocent young lives.

"Nice to have you back with us Seto." The captain's voice came through the monitor as all visual and audio link-ups had been fully restored.

In the warehouse Gwen now sat in the chair in front of their screen. Rhys on her right, Ianto her left, Jack at the back and Clem could be seen pacing nervously behind them all.

Gwen studied their friend's face. "I take it that you're up to speed on the situation?"

"Yes." Seto replied through gritted teeth struggling to compress the rage within him. "How can those bastards sit there, decide and agree to hand over more children, especially after they've seen what happens to them?"

"I believe the term Herbert Spencer coined is _'survival of the fittest'._" The young Welshman couldn't resist showing off his knowledge, even at a time like this. "Unfortunately, the majority of mankind would gladly see the most vulnerable members of society perish if it meant that they remained unaffected."

"Aw, that's bloody great!" Rhys moaned. He gestured to the screen where Lois stood in the conference room at Whitehall whilst she and the government officials viewed the TV screen displaying Frobisher submitting their offer to the 456 inside Thames House just a few streets away. "The lenses aren't picking up the camera talk."

"It's not like we need them to know what he's saying right now." The captain jeered. "We heard it all just a short while ago…"

"And we can always get her to use shorthand again if there's anything new to be said." Gwen interrupted the two men to avoid any bickering taking place.

Since Ianto had spoken with Jack in private a few hours ago he was very slowly getting back to be the boss he'd been before the secret that had been revealed the previous day. Whatever had been said between them had definitely made him more focused.

"Three, two, five, zero, zero, zero..." Clem suddenly began to chant. "…Three, two, five, zero, zero, zero…"

All eyes fell on the man in a trance like status. Clearly he was under the influence of the 456, but why?

"Coordinates? Grid reference maybe?" Rhys tried to be helpful with his suggestions as he watched his wife type the numbers into the Torchwood network.

"Seto, go check on Anathema." Jack ordered. "Quickly."

Doing as he was told, after setting up the fake figures and charts on his screen, the CEO got up and left the study to find his daughter.

It didn't take him long as he found her in the kitchen as she, Kisara and Rebecca were in the process of preparing a meal.

"One, seven, one, four, zero, zero, zero. One, seven, one, four, zero, zero, zero…"

His eyes widened with surprise that the number she chanted was different from that of the man in the London warehouse. What did it mean? "How long has she been like this?" He asked.

"A couple of minutes or so." Kisara replied with a casual sigh at having strangely gotten used to the random outbreaks. She looked at her husband. "Didn't Ianto say that this was all under control?"

"Yes." Seto nodded.

"Then why is this still happening?" She looked at him for reassuring answers but got none.

Rebecca placed a comforting hand on the silvery hair woman's shoulder. "I doubt Ianto would have given Seto the exact details of Torchwood's case." She played along to upload the lie started the previous day. "The work they do _is_ highly classified after all, but I know he'd have called us back if anything else was seriously wrong."

"… One, seven, one, four, zero, zero, zero. One, seven, one, four, zero, zero, zero…"

Mokuba entered the kitchen holding one of the twins in his arms. "There's a report on the TV about children in the US chanting two, three, four, zero, zero, zero, zero." He registered his niece and then looked at his brother with a malicious glare. "This got anything to do with your pal Jack?"

"I wouldn't know." Seto shrugged. "I've been busy with Kaiba Corp business; only came out for a glass of water." He carefully made his way around his narked looking wife and sister-in-law, poured himself a drink from the jug inside the refrigerator and then squeezed pass them again.

"… One, seven, one, four, zero, zero, zero." Anathema stopped and continued with her task of helping her Mommy Kara and Auntie Becky.

"See, nothing to worry about." Seto smiled and then quickly headed back to the safety of the study before any of them had time to complain at him for locking himself away once more.

Seto locked the door and cancelled his cover screen so that he could see his friends inside the warehouse. "Anathema was saying one, seven, one, four, zero, zero, zero, and according to a TV report the children in the US are saying two, three, four, zero, zero, zero, zero." He informed them.

Ianto was swift to type the information into the system. "Yep, though so." He declared. "The figures that the kids are spouting out are ten percent of their county's child population."

"I'm betting that this is the 456's way of declining the offer just made to them and a little reminder of exactly what they want." Jack stated. "Too bad they won't be getting it whilst I'm still around."

"So you're not going to let them cave in to the demand?" Seto felt a flicker of rejoice at seeing his friend more like his usual self.

"Not sure how just yet." The captain admitted and gave his lover a quick glance. "But somebody has to stand up to these monsters." If it wasn't for Ianto's refusal to let him wallow in his own thoughts then he might never have found the will and support he required to view the situation optimistically.

"Okay, Frobisher's back in the room and the meeting is about to start." Gwen informed them all.

The team gathered around to view the room of government officials seated at a huge table. Lois was able to see each of the faces clearly for the lip reading software in her lenses to work properly, with the exception of Frobisher who was seated in front of and with his back to her. But that was no problem as her notepad and pen was at the ready.

"_With regrets, ladies and gentlemen, I have to tell you that we're now facing the worst case scenario."_ The Prime Minister spoke to his cabinet. _"And right now we don't have time for our discussion on ethics. I'm afraid the hand-wringing will have to wait. All we can do at the moment is to address a number of vital and practical questions."_

"_Namely, how do we select the ten percent who would go?"_ A man opposite him spoke up._ "How would we transport them? And how could we sell it to the voters?"_

"_John?" _The Prime Minister addressed Frobisher for the answers, or at least the suggestive prompting, he sought.

_Well, the selection's not down to me._ Seto read the shorthand that had been written and couldn't help wondering if the slight delay had been on Lois' part or the man whom it was becoming apparent to him was being made as the scapegoat. After all Frobisher was just a go between middleman, and that was the kind of fate which would likely befall him in the end.

"_Nevertheless; practical solutions please."_

_Once the selection has been made then my department can arrange to bus all the children to the rendezvous points together, school by school. My staff are compiling various school databases. You just need to decide what criteria you'd use for selection. Which is out of my hands; over to you sir._ Seto was impressed at the way the man sounded professional about the plans yet had handed the buck right back as it was fairly clear that he didn't want to make any decisions himself.

"_Anyone?" _Having not been given the resolution he'd hoped for, the Prime Minister opened up to suggestions from the rest of the room. _"Might I remind you the clock is ticking?" _He didn't care who it was making them just as long as it wasn't him.

"_It would have to be random."_ A dark skinned man seated on his left answered.

"_No one'll believe it was random, not unless some of us are seen waiting at the school gates for empty buses to return." _A woman on the Prime Minister's right shot the idea down.

"_If the criteria we use is demonstrably fair and entirely random, then at least we could defend ourselves…" _The dark skinned man argued.

"_So you're willing to risk your kids to make it look fair?"_ The woman seemed appalled by the mere thought of using their offspring as get off tickets.

"_Then how else can we choose?" _He argued back.

"_We could do it alphabetically." _The other man from before added his thought.

"_Oh yes."_ Scoffed the woman. _"Thanks Mr Yates."_

"_I didn't mean … I've got no kids … I wasn't trying to …"_

"_Yes, no kids and no consequences." _The woman now turned on the Prime Minister. _"And yours have already grown up."_

"_Let's keep this civil Denise." _He retorted.

"_Oh yes, let's discuss the loss of millions of innocent children and let's be civilised about it!"_

"_If you wouldn't mind, yes."_

"_Could we limit it to one loss per family?"_ The dark skinned man suggested to break up the petty arguing. _"Every second-born child?"_

_That would take more time. _Lois was speedy with her shorthand. _More organisation. Time we don't have._

"_So it would have to be one school at a time." _He concluded.

Silence fell in the room and nobody dared to look up at each other.

"_Look, I'm going to say what everyone else is thinking." _It was Denise who broke the stillness. _"If this…this lottery takes place, my kids aren't in it."_

"_I'm sure the families of Gold Command would be exempted anyway." _The discussion continued. _"In fact, isn't that official policy?"_

"Gang of Bastards!" Clem suddenly exclaimed and than stammered, "Isn't it?" Leaving Seto to momentarily wonder if the man had some kind of Tourette's syndrome.

"_During a major civil emergency, we're also dealing with deeply debilitating personal grief…"_

"Listen to them." He commented again.

"… _I'm right, aren't I? It is official policy that our families get protection."_

"Of course they bloody do." Gwen spoke out her bitter feelings.

The dark skinned man continued his case._ "So, we could have a show of hands. I hate to be crass, but in the circumstances…"_

"_Well who votes?" _Denise cut in._ "Those with kids or those with no interest to declare?"_

"_No one votes." _The Prime Minister declared. _"It's down to me to make an executive decision."_

"_Do you need some time?" _Yates asked him.

"_No."_ He'd had several options proposed by them so it wouldn't make him out to be the bad guy if he was to put forward his initial plan of action._ "Whatever happens, the children and grandchildren of everyone round this table will be exempt."_

Silence.

"_What about nieces and neph…"_

"_Don't push your luck!" _He snapped to the woman by his side.

"_You seriously expect me to look my brother in the eye…"_

"_We need to limit the number of people who know."_

"… _and what? Just give him a condolence card?"_

"_That's the responsibility of government Denise!"_

"_No, the first responsibility is to protect the best interests of this country, right?"_ Seto liked the way this woman was holding her own against the man. Of course he'd have liked it even more if she'd been fighting to get them to reconsider their other options which had been barely taken into account earlier that day._ "Then let's say it. In a national emergency, a country must plan for the future and discriminate between those who are vital to continued stability and those who are not. And now that we've established that our kids are exempt, the whole principle of random selection is dead in the water anyway."_

"_Only so far as …" _The dark skinned man tried to voice his views but was disregarded.

"_Let me finish. Now look, on the one hand you've got the good schools, and I don't just mean those producing graduates. I mean the pupils who will go on to staff our hospitals, our offices, our factories; the workforce of the future. We need them. Accepted, yes? So, set against that you've got the failing schools, full of the less able, the less socially useful, those destined to spend a lifetime on benefits, occupying places on the dole queue, and frankly, the prisons. Now look, should we treat them equally? God knows we've tried and we've failed. And now the time has come to choose. And if we can't identify the lowest achieving ten percent of this country's children, then what are the school league tables for?" _

There was more silence to accompany the personal afterthoughts of each person in that room.

"_Anyone want to speak against that?" _The Prime Minister asked.

There was no objection whatsoever to what had been said; his manipulation to get others to suggest his scheme having paid off better than expected by letting the woman at his side charge on in her fury. _"Then there we have it."_ He turned to Frobisher._ "John, you have your criteria. We've selected the ten percent."_

One by one the people in the room began to rise from their seats now that the meeting was over.

"We've got enough evidence recorded here to destroy every person in that room." Gwen stated still in shock of the discussion she and the others had witnessed.

"And we can use it to force our way into Thames House; finally get face-to-face with this thing." Jack said as he felt the time was right to carry out the strategy they had discussed earlier. "Right, everyone know what they're doing?"

Those in the warehouse nodded.

"What if I can't get Lois to agree to this Jack?" Gwen asked.

"She hasn't let us down yet." He stated before turning towards the Welshman he now had respect for. "Rhys, okay?"

"Yeah." He nodded and then quickly changed his mind. "Well, actually no. I still don't like the plan."

"What plan is this?" Seto asked confused.

"One we discussed in your absence, but don't worry I'll inform you of your part in a minute." The captain assured before continuing his conversation with Rhys. "You've got nothing to worry about. Her negotiation skills are out of this world. She'll be fine, I promise you."

"Don't make that kind of promise when you're not even going to be here to keep it!" The Welshman snapped. "If she and Clem come under any threat then it's down to her and her alone to protect them both."

"That's exactly why she's the best person for the job." Jack remained calm with the man who was extremely concerned for the well being of his wife and unborn child. "She's more than capable of defending herself."

"Look Rhys, sweetheart, just let me do my job." Gwen pleaded. "Let me help save all those children who have just been condemned."

"Okay." Rhys nodded. "But it just feels like getting me out of harm's way, like you don't think I can hack it."

"You're the most important part of this whole plan." She got up and kissed her husband goodbye.

Seto's eyes wandered and he caught sight of Ianto who was half way into a conversation on his cell phone.

"… don't let anyone take David and Mica away from you, for whatever reason. This goes for you people listening in on the wire as well. Forget the Official Secrets Act. If you've got children or grandchildren, you need to hear this. And you need to tell every parent you know." The young Welshman was now aware that the rest of the team were waiting for him. "Look, I've gotta go. I love you. Don't let the kids out of your sight. I love them too. I'm even warming to Johnny a bit." He ended the call.

"All done?" Jack asked.

"Yep." Ianto avoided making eye contact with any of them as he pocketed his hand set and produced a gun intended for the captain. "They'd have traced that call, no problems, and should be on their way here even as we speak." He gave an apologetic look towards his lover. "Also Rhiannon knows what she has to do. I had to tell her. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Jack said as he took the weapon now handed to him. He didn't blame the younger man for wanting to protect those he cared for. A new cartridge was loaded into the gun. Oh how he missed his Webley. "Look's like it's time for me to go and stand up to them."

"Yes sir." Ianto also loaded his own gun.

"What are you doing?" The captain asked inquisitively.

"I'm coming with you."

"No, you're not." Jack almost laughed hysterically. "You're going with Rhys."

"Change of plan; I'm not leaving you."

"No."

"You need me Jack."

"No." He shook his head wildly. "Stick to what we agreed."

"What we '_agreed'_ was to be honest with each other." The Welshman shot back a reference to part of their conversation that they had had in private were he had practically forced the other man to confide in him.

"Honest? I'll give you honest!" Jack exclaimed, now regretting the piece of information he had revealed which had blinded his lover into standing by him right now. "How about the fact that I'm about to go storming into Thames House, - peacefully or guns blazing? I haven't decided yet, - and that's about as far as my plan goes. I have no idea what kind of reception will be there waiting for me when I arrive or how hostile this creature will be when confronted. The only thing I have to protect myself if things get out of hand is this gun, but hey, you know me; I'll live through anything, so to speak."

The two men remained in a stare out between each other.

"Tell me Ianto, it your past experiences with bullies, how hard do they strike back after the first stand you make against them?" Jack wasn't expecting an answer, just trying to make a point about the dangers he faced. His eyes widened when he next spoke. "Yes it's true; I need you. So how much do you think my world would shatter if something were to happen to you because of me?" His lip gave a slight tremble at the thought of losing the younger man. "I hope that's honest enough for you?"

There were tears forming in Ianto's eyes as he nodded his clearer understanding. "I'll go with Rhys." He stepped up to his lover and kissed him farewell before turning to the other Welshman. "We'd better get a move on."

"Right." Rhys agreed and picked up the closed laptop. He and Ianto gave one last look at the loved ones they were leaving behind and then exited the warehouse.

"Isn't it? Isn't it?" Clem stammered. "Isn't it?"

"Ooh, calm down there now Clem." Gwen reached out to comfort the older man as he twitched at each sound and movement he made. "It's alright, everything is going to be alright."

"But they know I'm here…"

"And you've got this beautiful woman right here who's going to be protecting you." Jack almost managed a grin. "Some guys have all the luck."

"Luck? You think it's luck that I can still hear their noise inside my head?"

"No, of course not." Gwen assured as she defended her boss and seated Clem down in the chair she had been occupying. "You just sit down and take a rest. We'll be having a few visitors around shortly." She gestured at Jack for him to leave.

"Whoa, hold on a second!" The sound of Seto's voice stopped the captain in his tracks. "What exactly am I meant to be doing in all this?"

"Ah, almost forgot about you." Jack doubled back to the computer. "You've got an extremely important task to fulfil."

"Which is?" The CEO pressed on, anxious to be assigned his role in the unknown plan.

"Take care of your family." The captain told him.

"What?" Seto sounded almost insulted.

"If they're rounding up the kids here, don't think that they won't be making plans elsewhere."

"But we're in one of UNIT's safe houses Jack." He argued. "Nobody is going to touch us here."

"Then good for you, your work is done."

"Seriously; that's it? There's got to be something more I can do?"

"By all means Seto, help Gwen gather more data on these corrupt officials, but other than that, there really is nothing more that you can do. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got my own task to carry out." Jack made his way across the warehouse to exit it.

"Don't you walk away from me!" Seto shouted over the link-up but the older man clearly chose to ignore him. "Jack!"

That was it now, the captain was gone.

_Oh no you don't! _Refusing to give up until he could get his friend to acknowledge that he could still do more, Seto pulled out his cell phone and dialled the new number he had been given. The line to Jack's phone rang twice and was then cancelled to put him through to the rightful owner's voicemail message. Cursing he hung up.

"Now, now, there's no need for language like that." Gwen jested but only received a narked glare in response.

"I can't believe that you guys schemed a plan without me."

"It was Jack's idea." She explained. "Didn't want you getting involved. You've got enough on your plate to deal with without having to worry about us and this creature." There was a pause and then she added. "Listen, if you really insist on helping further then why don't you have a go at hacking that camera they have set up in the room with that thing now? It'll help us gather more evidence if we have backed-up footage of Jack's negotiation with it."

"You must be joking." Seto snorted. "Me? Hack? Using this piece of crap? You'd have more luck at turning Jack straight before it times out on me again. Besides why can't you just use the footage you're recording now?"

"Because …"

"Isn't it? Isn't it?"

"Shhh." Gwen cooed as she gently stroked the older man's arm and then returned to answering her friend's question. "Because Ianto purposely used his mobile to give our location away and alert the government's hit team to us. Once they arrive here, they'll be shown their bosses' conspiring, and hopefully be won over onto our side. But if something happens to go wrong, say this equipment is destroyed, - or worse, - then at least you'd be able to make sure that Ianto and Rhys are given the evidence to add to that which they already have on the laptop."

"Okay, I'll try." Seto began to hammer the keyboard but also kept an eye on the footage from the contact lenses.

A short while later the feed from Lois displayed a front view of Frobisher as he delivered his rushed plan of action; _"We need a cover story, to explain why the operation is happening and to encourage participation. So the suggestion is we announce that the children will be given some kind of inoculation, a jab to stop them speaking in unison…"_

"People are too smart to fall for something like that." Seto grumbled aloud. He had chosen to give up on the slow processing speed of UNIT's computer and now keyed on his cell phone.

"…_We stress that there's no immediate danger, that everyone will be seen in due course. Then when it goes wrong and the children disappear, we blame the aliens, claim ignorance and face the music."_

"_We say the 456 double-crossed us?" _ The dark skinned man asked.

Gwen's cell phone rang and she quickly answered it. "Jack?"

"I'm just about there." He told her. "Make sure Lois is ready."

"Okay."

"Did Seto give you any grief?"

"Not really." She replied. "Oh, but we did find a way in which he could be useful."

"And how's that?" He sounded somewhat annoyed.

"Hacking into the camera inside the room to record further evidence in case it's required."

"Good idea." The captain praised. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Forget the hacking. It's not going to work." Seto declared. "But tell Jack that if he can manage to adjust the camera's transmission settings I should be able to receive it on my cell phone no trouble at all."

She relayed the message.

"I'll see what I can do." Jack hung up.

"Thanks Seto." Gwen showed her gratitude to her friend before giving out a deep breath. "Here goes." She tapped on her keyboard to inform their insider of the captain's arrival at Thames House. _Jack's in position. Let's do it._

Whilst she waited to see if Lois would come through for them and make an announcement of Torchwood's surveillance, the Welshwoman spoke to the CEO. "I can hear vehicles pulling up outside. That'll be our guests. I'll be cancelling our connection shortly, just in case the worst should happen, then they won't be able to trace you." She typed again; _Jack is in position. Do it NOW._

"They can't trace me Gwen." Seto assured. "I've got UNIT's utmost protection."

"Well aren't you the lucky one." She retorted with a sarcastic smirk. "But then again I guess they _do_ owe you …"

"_Don't be ridiculous!"_ The sound of Frobisher's raised and startled voice interrupted Gwen's words.

"I think she's doing it. Good girl!" Gwen breathed out a sigh of relief just as the warehouse doors were kicked through and in came a dozen men with huge guns, all of them pointing at her and Clem. "Gotta go." She stated calmly as the man beside her cowered to the floor and Seto now found himself blocked from the Torchwood network for a second time.

Seto rubbed his head in frustration and silently prayed that there would be no causalities within the warehouse hideout. How his friend could remain so at ease with so many weapons locked onto her he'd never know. Thank goodness he and his family were safe from being under any kind of threat of any form right now.

Suddenly his cell phone began to rumble from the incoming surge of data as video footage of Jack stood in the room with the 456, appeared on its screen. And sure enough, the captain was standing his ground.

"… _In the past, the numbers were so small they could be kept secret. But this time, that is not going to happen. Because we've recorded everything. All the negotiations, everything the politicians said, everything that happens in this room, and those tapes will be released to the public. Unless you leave this planet for good."_

"_You yielded in the past." _The alien in the tank answered. _"You will do so again."_

"_When people find out the truth, you will have over six billion angry human beings taking up arms to fight you. That might be a fight you think you can win, but at the end of it, the human race in defence of its children will fight to the death. And if I have to lead them into battle, then I will."_

"_This is fascinating, isn't it?"_

Seto couldn't help but notice the 456's choice of phrase. _'Isn't it?'_ The same words which Clem had stuttered on multiple occasions, plus hadn't the man said that he could hear 'their noise' inside his head?

The strange being continued; _"The human infant mortality rate is 29,158 deaths per day. Every three seconds, a child dies. The human response is to accept and adapt."_

"_We're adapting right now and we're making this a war." _The captain stood there firm and in silence as he waited for a response.

Finally, one came._ "Then the fight begins."_

There was more silence.

"_We're waiting for your reply." _Jack stated and Seto could see his friend's body becoming slightly anxious with the wait.

"_Action has been taken."_

Red lights began to flash, alarms sounded and thunderous crashes could now be heard as the building went into lockdown mode and sealed itself like it had been programmed to do in case of chemical and biological warfare.

"_What have you done?" _Jack demanded.

"_You wanted a demonstration of war." _The 456 explained._ "A virus has been released. It will kill everyone in the building."_

Seto's eyes widened as he watched his friend run from the room all the while shouting warnings to the other people in the building, asking them to call for help, switch of the air conditioning and block vents, and to get gas masks and hazard suits as well as oxygen cylinders as precautions to save as many lives as possible from the poisoned air. All of them were trapped and condemned to die as a result of his confrontation.

Less than a minute later Jack returned into the room with his gun drawn and pointing at the tank. _"You made your point, now stop this and we can talk. If not I'll blast that tank apart and we'll all die together."_

"_You are dying even now." _It taunted.

Several bullets fired from Jack's gun as he lost his cool and anger took over him. All of them ricocheted off the glass with none of them having left the faintest mark of hitting it.

Next a loud screeching noise sounded out and the being inside the tank began to thrash wildly. It left huge splatters of green slime where it had struck the thick reinforced glass.

"_You said you would fight."_ It taunted again as the captain stood there defenceless with a crushed will at not having even intimidated the alien.

"_I take it all back." _He spoke in barely a whisper. _"Those people you're killing right now, they've done nothing to you."_

"_You said that the human race would stand as one. Therefore you will fall as one."_

"_No." _Jack shook his head. _" If anything it will make them determined to fight you more."_ He hoped that he sounded convincing through what was choked tears of remorse for the people dying downstairs because of his actions. With his strength now fading he slumped to the floor. _"Let them go. Show me you're capable of mercy and we'll work something out."_

"_We will show you no mercy." _The screeching increased even more._ "The remnant will be disconnected."_

"Remnant?" Seto mouthed out aloud. What was it talking about? Clem perhaps?

As suddenly as the noise started, it stopped. _"You will die and tomorrow your people will deliver the children."_

"_We will… stop… you."_ Jack spoke angrily with his last breath before he could do the only thing that he had strength for; lay down and die.

Seto watched his friend's last moments and although he wanted to agree with Jack, he wasn't completely convinced that the 456 could be stopped. If they could kill a building full of people in under five minutes and had previously killed millions over the space of a couple of months, then what chance did the human race have for survival against these beings?


End file.
